Beware! Devon is in the details

Ajinkya Rahane: Strike rate 185.0; Devon Conway: Strike rate 184.4; Shivam Dube: Strike rate 192.5; Ambati Rayudu: Strike rate 233.3; Moeen Ali: Strike rate 211.1

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) opener Devon Conway has sounded an ominous warning to his team's opponents, saying his side have been aiming for 200-plus strike rates on good batting surfaces to put up imposing totals, which give them better chances of winning matches.

Massive total

On Monday night, the four-time champions scored a mammoth 226 for six at the Chinnaswamy Stadium here, and despite the onslaught from Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper Faf du Plessis (62 off 33 balls) and Australian Glenn Maxwell (76 off 36), CSK still managed to win by eight runs.

Conway (83 off 45), Ajinkya Rahane (37 off 20) and Shivam Dube (52 off 27) played a pivotal role with the bat, scoring at a strike rate of more than 180 to help CSK post the big total. "It was a really good surface to bat on, so, for us to get those big totals it's about trying to create a strike rate of around 200-plus," said Conway at the post-match press conference.

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The Player of the Match said that though he (184.44) was a bit off the 200-plus strike rate, he was happy that Rahane (185), Dube (192.5), Ambati Rayudu (233) and Moeen Ali (211.1) did well. "I didn't manage to achieve that [200-plus strike rate], but some of the work done by the other players like Ajinkya, Dube, Rayudu and Moeen Ali in the end, they all chipped in with really good strike rates. That's what got us to a competitive total. That's the method on this kind of wicket where it's really good to bat," added Conway, 31, going on to appreciate skipper MS Dhoni, who held on to the two skiers to dismiss the dangerous Du Plessis and Maxwell.

Dhoni's brilliant catching

Conway said he was confident that someone like Dhoni would never fluff those skiers - one of the toughest catches to take in night games. "Those [Faf and Maxwell] were very tough catches because it's not easy to catch balls that go straight up in the dark night.Before we went on to the field, MS had said that we are going to be put under pressure at times, and Faf and Glenn did put us under pressure, but we always felt that by having 200-plus on the board, if we get a couple of wickets, we could always bounce back.

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