Dwayne Bravo, whose unbeaten 25-ball 46 got Chennai Super Kings' Champions League T20 campaign back on track with a four-wicket win over Cape Cobras, credited skipper M.S. Dhoni with showing the way forward for batsmen on a track that was not conducive for stroke-making.
Dhoni made just 15 runs of 17 balls in CSK's pursuit of 146 and did not register a single boundary, but Bravo said the knock laid the platform for his subsequent onslaught on Steyn. The two added 43 runs for the sixth wicket in 35 balls before Dhoni's dismissal in the 18th over.
“You must give credit to MS (Dhoni), because he really showed the way to go about on this wicket, placing the ball in the gaps, and running a lot of singles and twos. It was unfortunate he got out, but by that time we knew we had a realistic chance of winning the match,” said Bravo, during the post-match press conference.
Despite Dhoni's dismissal and a mounting asking rate, Bravo turned the contest around with some heavy hitting off Dale Steyn, whose two slower balls in the penultimate over went for a six and a four, and the ball after that was smashed to the fence as well when the bowler reverted to length. The 19th over went for 17 runs and Steyn finished wicket-less.
“Taking the pace off the ball is a good idea, but when you have the world's best bowler in your team, you expect him to take wickets. Today, unfortunately, it (the slower balls) didn't come off well for Steyn, and as a batsman I capitalised,” he said.
Skipper of Cape Cobras Justin Kemp said his side could have pulled off the win had it managed to score a few more runs at the death (CC made 21 runs in its final four overs) and capitalise on its chances in the field (Dhoni, Raina and Bravo were all dropped at various stages during the innings).
“In this game when you are playing international stars you make mistakes and you are going to pay for them. Every dropped catch and every extra run that you give away comes back to haunt you.
“It is a very slow Chennai wicket and unfortunately we lost wickets and it would have been nice if we could have made more (at the death). We lost wickets in going for the big shots instead of running ones and twos,” said Kemp.
