New Delhi: The first match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) saw Chennai Super Kings bundling out Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for just 70 runs at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Saturday. While both CSK skipper MS Dhoni and his RCB counterpart Virat Kohli said that the pitch wasn’t how they had expected it to be, former Australia and CSK opener Mathew Hayden called it “below standard”.
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The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has now asked the IPL franchises to prepare sporting wickets for the rest of the tournament. Speaking to IANS, a senior BCCI official said that while the board doesn’t interfere with the wickets prepared during the popular T20 league, it should not be heavily tilted towards either the batsmen or the bowlers.
“The franchises have the freedom to prepare wickets without the interference of the BCCI, but the wickets should be sporting and not heavily titled in favour of either the batsmen or bowlers,” the official said. Speaking after the game, Dhoni had said: “I never expected the wicket to play the way it did. It was too slow and it just reminded me of the 2011 Champions League wicket. After the IPL, we came back and we had a really good season, but the wicket got relaid and all of a sudden we found it very difficult.”