Sharjah: Chennai Super Kings’ death bowling expert Dwayne Bravo could be “out for a few days or a couple of weeks” due to a groin injury, according to head coach Stephen Fleming.
Bravo’s inability to bowl the final over cost CSK their IPL game on Saturday as Delhi Capitals knocked off the required 17 runs.
“He (Bravo) seems to have a right groin injury, obviously it was serious enough to keep him from coming back to the field, he is just really disappointed that he was not able to bowl the final over, that’s pretty much for what he is in the team for,” Fleming said.
The seasoned all-rounder’s injury would have to be reassessed going forward.
“He would have to be reassessed going forward, at this stage, you would imagine that it would take a few days or a couple of weeks,” Fleming said after CSK’s five-wicket loss.
Bravo’s injury meant CSK had to give left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja the final over.
“Unfortunately Dwayne Bravo got injured so he could not bowl the last over, naturally he is a death bowler, that’s the way our season has been going, we are having challenges thrown at us,” Fleming said at the post-match press conference.
“Jadeja was not planned to bowl at the death, but with Bravo getting injured, we did not have any other option. We did well to create a situation where it could have worked for us but we have to keep working hard and turn it around.”
The CSK head coach said Shikhar Dhawan played well but rued the dropped catches as the experienced left-handed opener guided DC home with his first IPL hundred.
“Well, we gave Shikhar Dhawan a few lives, he was playing well, we had opportunities to take his wicket early but we did not take them.
“He was playing aggressively and he was staying right up there with the required run-rate, if we had got him out, we could have put pressure on their middle-lower order, the game might have been different, dropping three-four catches against him was a bit too many.”
He said the team did well to reach 179 for five, thanks to some good hitting towards the end.
“It was difficult early on, the way we played in the back five was promising, some good hitting from us to get there at 180, we if had taken our chances, it would have been a match-winning score but it was not to be,” he added.
