IPL 2023: MS Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings suffered a major blow as star pace bowler Sisanda Magala is set to be ruled out of action for 2 weeks. CSK played their last game against Rajasthan Royals at Chepauk and the home team went down in a nail-biter by 3 runs. Magala was part of the match and hurt his finger while fielding in the first innings of the game.
Notably, CSK coach Stephen Fleming threw light on injuries of a few CSK players, including Magala. "Deepak Chahar is (out for) two-or-three weeks, Simarjeet Singh... I am guessing a little bit here... he is (out for) 10 days, Ben Stokes is improving day by day, Mukesh Choudhary is out, Magala is out for at least two weeks," Fleming said in a post-match press conference.
Stokes missed CSK's last two games due to a heel injury, while Moeen Ali, who missed the game against Mumbai Indians was back in the last game. Due to these injuries, the head coach said that CSK are working on thin resources. "For us again, it's losing another player - that's two games in a row - and we're already pretty thin, so we'd like it (injuries) to stop. Magala's hand was split, unfortunately, so he was unable to bowl those last two overs. And the same with Deepak Chahar in the last game, so we're operating on pretty thin resources. But we're not the only team to have that," he added. CSK will play three matches in the next two weeks.
Rajasthan Royals defeated Chennai Super Kings in a high-voltage match of IPL 2023 on Wednesday. In the match played at CSK's home ground, MA Chidambaram stadium, RR beat the MS Dhoni-led team by 3 runs. The match was an absolute nail-biter as it went down the wire.
Coming to bat first after losing the toss, Sanju Samson-led team registered 175/8 in 20 overs. In response, Team CSK managed to chase 172 runs at a loss of 6 wickets. MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja tried getting CSK over the line with 54 required in the final 3 overs. The equation came down to 21 off 6 but despite Dhoni's two sixes in the final over, the four-time champions went down by 3 runs.