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Shivam Dube has worked on his weakness against short-ball quite well and it has a lot to do with Mahendra Singh Dhoni personally working with the Mumbai left-hander, said Chennai Super Kings skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad.
Dube blazed a quickfire half-century to power CSK to a thumping 63-run victory against Gujarat Titans in the IPL 2024 match in Chennai on Tuesday.
The left-handed batter smashed five sixes in his 23-ball 51 to follow up on his 34 not out in the opening victory against Royal Challengers Bengaluru and the most notable feature in his game is how he is dealing with the short deliveries.
Early in his career, the struggled against the short balls but this season a transformed Dube has managed it well even when he looks a bit uncomfortable.
"Just confidence. When he came here the management worked with him personally, Mahi bhai worked with him personally. He knows what role he is playing and which bowler to take on. A big plus for us," Gaikwad praised his big-hitting game-changer.
Dube said he has worked hard to prepare against short balls, now that the bowlers are allowed to bowl a couple of bouncers per over.
"This franchise (CSK) is something different from all others. They are giving me the freedom. They want me to do better and I also want to win some matches," Dube said after winning Player of the Match award.
It is not just survival but Dube has also attacked short balls in these two games like never before, albeit with mixed results.
"I have worked in that way. It is helping me. I know they will bowl me some short balls and I am ready for that."
He also maintained that the team management has advised him to do the same thing match after match -- that is to take on the bowlers.
"They want me to do the same thing I did today. They want me to score with a higher strike-rate and that is what I'm doing."
For his skipper, Tuesday's win was a result of a near-flawless performance.
"Today's game was near to perfect game, in the sense of batting-bowling-fielding, all three departments. Against a team like Gujarat, we had to produce this kind of performance," Gaikwad said.
Gujarat Titans skipper Shubman Gill had no hesitation in admitting that his team was completely outplayed by CSK.
"They outplayed us when we were batting, their execution was spot on. We backed ourselves to get a decent score in the Powerplay and once we didn't, we were always playing catch-up. It was unfortunate for us," Gill said after the match.
The Gujarat Titans' skipper said that he was expecting a 200-run total considering the hard bouncy nature of the track.
"In T20, you can always talk about 10-15 runs here or there, end of the day it's about how much they got. On this wicket, we were expecting to chase 190-200. I think, it's a great learning for the bowlers."
For Gill, it is better to face an opposition like CSK early on in the competition.
"I think it's better to have this kind of game early on in the tournament rather than in the middle or late. We always expected to chase 190-200, it was a really good wicket. Felt like we let ourselves down while batting."