Chennai, April 6 (IANS): In the first three games of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, the Chennai Super Kings continued in the same vein with the bat which gave them success in the 2023 season triumph: the all-out attacking approach, with the high strike-rate being of utmost importance.

Last season, with Devon Conway and Ruturaj Gaikwad being the top run-scorers for CSK, with Shivam Dube, Ajinkya Rahane, Ambati Rayudu and Ravindra Jadeja chipping in, the most striking thing was all of their main run-scorers had a strike-rate above 135. Though Conway hasn’t been available this season and Rayudu retired from IPL, CSK have managed to stay afloat through the additions of Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell and Sameer Rizvi to retain their left-right batting combinations, while retaining Dube and Rahane as their spin and pace hitters.

As per statistics from Cricket-21, CSK’s batters had a collective strike rate of 157 from the first three games of IPL 2024, with a run rate of 9.4, which stands at third place in the batting charts, despite them being thwarted by Delhi Capitals at Visakhapatnam.

Shane Watson, who spent the final years of his IPL career at CSK, including making that outrageous century to lead the side to a triumph in the 2018 final, feels the side defining their roles clearly for the batting line-up has been a key recipe of their success with the bat since 2023.

“There’s no doubt that CSK has always found a way just to blend in their attacking batters with the calming influences as well and also enhancing the skills every batter has. We have seen that with Ajinkya Rahane as a starting point. I played with him at the Rajasthan Royals for a number of years and then seen him at different franchises, where he didn’t do particularly well in the recent few years.”

“But then to have the freedom and opportunity to bat at No.3 and have the highest strike rate of his IPL career -– to see that incredible skill on display, of hitting against the spin and quick bowlers. This is something Chennai Super Kings have been incredibly good at in defining individual roles and then giving them the opportunity to explore those incredible skills that they have.”

“We can also see Shivam Dube -– he was a journeyman for a couple of franchises and then is given a very specific role to his strengths at CSK -– coming in at number four or five to go off from ball one and taking down the spinners in a big way. Again it shows the tactical and strategic genius of MS Dhoni and Stephen Fleming in particular of knowing how to wary people’s skills in a role and integrate it so beautifully.”

“So, for me, it doesn’t surprise me at all why CSK just continues to fill holes and get the very best out of the talent and skills the players bring in, and this will continue to happen till the time they have those leaders at the top,” said Watson while replying to an IANS query in a virtual media interaction by JioCinema, where he’s an IPL expert.

CSK’s real test of their all-out attacking approach was to come against a Sunrisers Hyderabad outfit on Friday evening at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, a place which had been the scene of the hosts ransacking 277 against a hapless Mumbai Indians.

The pitch’s nature changed from red to black soil, but with cutters expected to rule the roost, CSK had to take on the SRH bowlers in Power-play, who resorted mainly to back-of-the-length deliveries.

Ravindra fell in this pursuit, but Gaikwad chose to stay for long in a bid to accelerate when the time would be ripe. It resulted in CSK ending the Power-play at 48/1, with a run rate of eight, below than the RR of 9.1 recorded from its first three games of this year in the first six overs and of 9.27 from a tournament point of view.

Gaikwad ended the six-over phase at 23 off 17 balls, and his overall strike rate of 118.8 in this season is currently the third-worst among IPL 2024 batters in the Power-play. Later, he would fall in a bid to attack against spin and end with a strike rate of 123.81.

Even though Dube tried to get the innings back on track with a 24-ball 45, going at a strike rate of 187.5, CSK would never get the high total it wanted to challenge SRH with, as all of their other batters amassed 118 runs off 96 balls at a strike-rate of 122.9.

SRH’s bowlers adapting well to execute their cutters and slower balls meant CSK got only 38 runs in their last five overs, and the run rate from that phase at 7.6, which was way below the run rate of 11.5 they had in this time during their first three games.

In comparison, blitzkrieg from Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma saw SRH get 78/1 in the first six overs and the run-rate at a towering 13, which decided the game’s result there itself to get their second consecutive win at home.

With CSK’s short away leg giving them two out of two defeats, they now return home to face a marauding Kolkata Knight Riders on Monday evening and they will be keen to get their attacking mojo back to fix their problem of maximising the power-play.