Cricket News: Dhoni, Kohli come down heavily on slow nature of pitch

Following a low-scoring encounter that kick started IPL 2019, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli - captains of Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore respectively - came down heavily on the slow nature of the surface, which resulted in only 141 runs being scored in 34.5 overs for the loss of 13 wickets. As a result, despite a comfortable seven-wicket win in the tournament opener, Dhoni said, "The wicket definitely needs to be a lot better." At the toss, Dhoni elected to field, unsure of how the pitch would play out. Kohli felt there could be dew later and agreed with his counterpart's reading of the conditions and said his team too would have liked to field. However, things got far worse for RCB as they came out to bat. CSK's spin trio profited on a devilish surface and had them bundled out for 70, with only Parthiv Patel managing a double-digit score. However, despite a meagre total, the hosts took 17.4 overs to achieve the target. CSK, while assembling their squad at the last season's auction, had picked up five top spinners in the world, hoping that they could take advantage of the spin-friendly conditions at their home ground - M Chidambaram Stadium. However, despite the track being in sync with their strategy, Dhoni wasn't too impressed by what was dished out on Saturday (March 23).