A fabulous 138-run opening stand between Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw saw Delhi Capitals make light of a steep target of 189 to beat Chennai Super Kings by seven wickets in their first IPL game in Mumbai today.
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00:00A tough decision has to be taken to drop a senior player and bring another senior player like Robin Uthup and as you know...
00:06Did I hear you clearly? Did you say that the best captain in the world? He's become old. Your MS Dhoni is doing nothing. He's called a duck. What are you talking, Sahil?
00:23Hi guys and welcome to IPL 2021.
00:26Once again we're here with Straightbat which is with Golf News and Anas Sajan, Mr Cricket UAE and also his son Sahil.
00:33We're also joined by Gautam Bacharai who is here from our associate editor at Golf News and myself, Mark Smith.
00:42Now we obviously had an absolute thriller yesterday. Almost had a thriller today but it looked like Chennai just didn't come up to the task
00:55and Delhi Capitals just ran away with it. Anas?
01:00Well yes, absolutely spot on that Chennai couldn't defend this target even though at one stage it looked like they had a decent target
01:09but no target is big in the Wankhede Stadium with the dew and the small grounds and drop catches did cost CSK dearly.
01:20Alright and anyone else chipping in?
01:24We'd like to ask Sahil what his take would be. We know that his favourite hasn't had a good start but the signs are promising.
01:37You had Suresh Shahnawaz back and he was batting as if he had never left.
01:42Yeah, absolutely. I'm a Chennai Super Kings fan. It was really fun to watch Suresh Shahnawaz back and all Indian fans will also be excited to watch him.
01:54Obviously after the poor start from Chennai, they made up really well. Good to see Moeen Ali get some runs.
02:00Also Sam Curran chipping in with the bat. Of course every Indian fan must be disappointed that Dhoni did get out first ball.
02:07But in the end as Mr Dhoni said that 189 is a chaseable total in the Wankhede Stadium.
02:16Do we think that obviously Faf has got a great little landmark next to him because he's going to be the guy that had the first duck of the whole of the IPL.
02:40And my favourite cricketer Sam Curran, great numbers coming in at the end.
02:45Should there be a change in the order to bring these, we call them bowlers, but do we now regard Sam Curran as an all-rounder who should be further up the order?
03:00I definitely would like to see Moeen Ali up the order. Okay, Faf had a bad match.
03:07But what has hurt CSK even in the last year as a power player, you have scored 41 runs in six overs, which is below seven.
03:14And when you watch the opposition, they have scored 65. Okay, they were batting second.
03:18But CSK know that if they have to compete in this tournament, they need to get on in the first power play and make sure to put on at least 60.
03:27Even if they lose a couple of wickets scoring 60 is fine, but at least you are up and running.
03:32Okay, what does your son think of that?
03:36Personally, I think, you know, I mean, yes, Faf got out for a duck today.
03:42But can you base that on one game that he should be dropped?
03:46Personally, I don't think so. But if he does not perform further towards the tournament, I think they should also pick Robin Uthappa ahead of him and bring a foreign bowler in.
03:56Like they have signed, instead of John Silverwood, they got Jason Bairndorf, they've got Lungi Ngiri.
04:01Or if they want an extra spinner, they can get Imran Tahir in the mix.
04:05But personally, I think Robin Uthappa would be perfect to open the batting for them.
04:09But then, I mean, here's the question, does money speak more than star power?
04:15You know, like, you know, it's Faf to places, you know, do you drop him?
04:19Or, you know, are we looking at TV revenue here?
04:23Or are we looking at win the match?
04:27We talked about this last night about strength of the bench and who actually wins the tournament.
04:37Is it the star players or is it the strength and the depth?
04:41I'll ask Gautam to answer this question. He's more senior to me. He'll be able to answer this well.
04:48See, my point is, I think we, to be very honest, I think we are being overtly critical about Chennai.
04:56See, they are coming out of a very bad last season.
05:00This match, what effectively happened was, I mean, when you are 7 for 2,
05:05then it's obvious that in your those six powerplay overs, you can't be making possibly 60 for 2.
05:11Then you are looking to consolidate and which both Suresh Raina and Mohin,
05:17I think sending Mohin with his experience, I mean, he had been a T20 captain for England, mind you.
05:25So both of them managed to do the repair work reasonably well.
05:30And then that cameo effort by Sam Curran, you know, they managed to get there with 188.
05:38But what happened was, you know, you won't get to see this kind of opening partnerships
05:45like the one we saw between Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan too often, even in IPL,
05:51even though the batting conditions were near perfect.
05:54I mean, there was not Prithvi Shaw coming on the back of his, you know,
05:59what was a brilliant domestic season, both in Saeed Mustaqali as well as Vijay Hajare.
06:06Didn't put a foot wrong.
06:08The TV pundits were saying that how technically compact he has become.
06:12And Dhawan, we know, Dhawan also possibly had a point to prove that, you know,
06:16I'm just 35, but I can still play this world T20.
06:20So these two, I mean, by the time when the first wicket fell,
06:23DC were citing, you know, that improbable chase to make it possible.
06:28I think that's where they took care of the match from Chennai.
06:32Gautam, I just think, I mean, you're absolutely bang on.
06:34If you take Faf out of the equation, if you look at the numbers,
