Here’s The Real Reason Why Shivam Dube Bowled The 19th Over: Chennai Super Kings got off to their worst IPL start as they lost their first two games for the first time in their IPL history. After losing the season opener to KKR, they failed to defend 210 runs against Lucknow Super Giants.
The talking point has been Shivam Dube: with 34 runs needed in the last two overs, and both Bravo and Pretorius completed their four overs, Dube was handed the ball in the 19th over, wherein he conceded 25 runs as Ayush Badoni and Evin Lewis smashed him everywhere and put the game in LSG’s pocked; Jadeja and Moeen Ali had combined bowled three overs.
CSK head coach Stephen Fleming explained that since the dew was so immense – “it was like Niagara Falls,” his words – at the Brabourne Stadium when they were bowling, there was no chance of either Moeen or Jadeja bowling the 19th over, and hence they went with medium-pacer Shivam Dube.
Fleming admitted that CSK had known they had to get that fourth over out of someone – it eventually came to bite them back towards the end.
“If you’d looked earlier on, spinning options were taken out of play. Because it was like Niagara Falls in terms of the wetness and they [LSG] played well. So it was very hard to, one, grip the ball for a spinner and, two, to be effective. So early on, we were one over short but they played well. We always knew we had to pick up an over somewhere – we were hoping to be able to create enough of a run-rate towards the end that we could squeeze someone in,” Fleming said at the post-match press conference.
“Whether that was another spinner, the decision was made in the middle to use Dube, and they counted it well. So we always knew that one over was going to be pivotal and I think they did as well, but they played it very well.”
CSK fielded a really thin bowling attack with Mukesh Chaudhary and Pretorius making their IPL debut, Tushar Deshpande playing in just his 7th IPL match, having taken only 3 wickets before this one, Ali and Jadeja will always find it difficult to bowl in the dew.
Fleming conceded that CSK were short on resources as three of their senior fast bowlers – Deepak Chahar, Adam Milne and Chris Jordan – are out injured.
“We’ve got some young guys – playing Mukesh for the first time, Deshpande has played a little bit before. But I thought it was really honest. It’s really tough out there – you can’t appreciate how wet that ball is and the outfield is. So it’s very difficult to get any aggressive play, I think we were bowling defensively from about 10 overs onwards. I thought they hung in really well, started really well in tough conditions.
“Adam Milne has had some treatment, he’s hopefully not too far away. Chris Jordan, also, hopefully not too far away, and of course Deepak Chahar. So we are a bit of resource down with our fast bowling, but at some stage, all teams will find they are a little bit skinny in some areas,” the CSK coach reasoned.
