IPL 2019, Match 1: CSK vs RCB - 3 masterstrokes from Dhoni in the opening game

The much expected 12th edition of IPL begun today. The defending champions won the toss and elected to bat first. Virat Kohli also stated that he would have loved to bowl on the Chennai wicket. Dhoni surprised everyone as Chennai walked out to bowl only with the three overseas players.

Virat Kohli opened the innings with Parthiv Patel. RCB was off to a slow start on the slow wicket. Harbhajan drew the first blood for CSK as he dismissed the RCB captain for just six. The Chepauk wicket assisted massively for the spinners. Harbhajan went to pick the wickets of Moeen Ali and AB De Villiers in quick succession.

West Indies debutant Shimron Hetmyer got run out for a duck and no Bangalore batsman looked in the mood to stay on the wicket. Dhoni kept throwing the spinners and RCB kept losing wickets.

Eventually, RCB were bowled out for their third lowest score in IPL. Chennai took time in their chase but made sure they reached the target without much trouble to start the season with a win.

Dhoni, as usual, was best with his decisions and here are the three master strokes from Dhoni in the opening game.

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#3 Playing with only three overseas bowlers

Chennai played with only three overseas players

The former Indian captain is known for his smart decisions in the past. He has surprised everyone by picking only three overseas players that gave him the option to play with both the Indian spinners Jadeja and Harbhajan Singh.

Looking at the team composition, Dhoni had a clear plan of having variety in the spin department. Left-arm spinner Jadeja, right arm off-spinner Harbhajan Singh and right arm leg spinner Imran Tahir. The trio has picked eight wickets together.

One could debate that Dhoni could have gone with the Mitchell Santner but Chennai already has one experienced left spinner.

#2 Bowling out Deepak Chahar early

Deepak Chahar

Chennai Super Kings opened with Chahar and Harbhajan Singh. After a few overs, it was clearly evident that pitch was assisting the spinners. But the captain was not tempted to jump into spinners immediately and bowled out Chahar when Bangalore was under pressure.

It allowed him to use Tahir and Jadeja in the middle overs, which proved might effective in the end. The South African leg spinner picked up three wickets and conceded only nine runs in his four overs.

On the other hand, Jadeja took two wickets and conceded only 15 runs in his quota of overs. The RCB players had no clue against CSK's spin bowlers. Only Parthiv Patel showed some resilience with the bat and he was the last man who got out for RCB with 29 runs. Parthiv is the only batsman to score double-digit for RCB in this innings.

#1 Picking Harbhajan and making him open the bowling

Harbhajan Singh picked up three wickets against RCB

Chennai went with three spinners after electing to bowl on a pitch which offered a lot to the spinners. Chennai had three good spinners in Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, and Imran Tahir.

MS Dhoni threw the ball to the Indian off-spinner to open the bowling in power play. It turned out to be a vital decision as the veteran spinner took three crucial wickets including the likes of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers.

If it was any other captain, he would have tempted to go with Imran Tahir or Jadeja who used to bowl in the powerplay overs. The South African spinner is fresh from the performance against Sri Lanka, still, Dhoni preferred experience over form and it paid off in the end. It helped Chennai Super Kings begin the season on a winning note.