In the middle of the ninth over, MS Dhoni had a word with Piyush Chawla as Faf du Plessis fetched the ball from beyond the extra cover fence. The match against Delhi Capitals was at a stage that the former India captain has always enjoyed puppeteering. But on Friday, at the Dubai international stadium, the match was actually slipping away.

Piyush, who was toyed with in the unforgiving Sharjah Cricket stadium just three days before, would’ve heaved a sigh of relief on learning about the stadium dimensions in Dubai. The simplified version of the bowling plans at this venue would’ve perhaps been to make the batsmen play their shots square of the wicket rather than letting them take the shorter, straighter route. On that third ball of the over though, Piyush erred by going slightly fuller, and Prithvi Shaw cashed in with an authoritative inside out drive.

Interestingly, a very different looking Delhi Capitals emerged from the PowerPlay overs. They found a reason to initiate Plan B early in the tournament after their early collapse against Kings XI Punjab (13 for 3 in 4 overs), triggered by their attempt to throw their bat around on a sticky wicket. By the time Dhoni was ready to put Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan through his spin test, they had only scored at a run-a-ball. Neither side had really made a play to seize control until then, which meant an almighty jostle was now on the cards in the next phase of play.

Chawla’s intention of not bowling full was perhaps spot on. But Shaw – like so many of the Indian batsmen in this tournament dipped in domestic cricket experience – showed his adeptness to adjust and dominate spin. Such was his control that he smartly targeted the backward point region with his cut shot soon after forcing Dhoni to move Deepak Chahar a few spaces to his right to protect the extra cover fence.

Keeping up the sudden surge in run rate was perhaps easier at the end. With not a single spinner in the CSK ranks to turn the ball away from the left-hander, Dhawan had a spring in his step. Ravindra Jadeja, who’d conceded 42 and 40 in the two previous fixtures, didn’t do himself any favours by pitching the ball right in Dhawan’s hitting arc and was duly welcome with a slog sweep for a six. Jadeja’s length didn’t improve against the right-handed Shaw either, who comfortably hit him against the turn.

“Yeah it [Chawla and Jadeja’s form] is an area of concern because it’s been such a strength for CSK,” Stephen Fleming said in the post-match press conference. “You’ve got to think the style of play we’ve developed for the last 12 years is heavily based on spin so what I guess we’re trying to do is find a different personality, but spin still plays a part. We’re just struggling to adjust and find the pace and the style to bowl through the middle.”

DC went from 36/0 in 6 overs to 88/0 in 10, which proved to be a vital acceleration as the pitch slowed down and the batsmen struggled to put the cutters away in the second half of the innings. Even Chawla and Jadeja managed to regain some composure but the damage done through their first two dreadful overs each had far-reaching consequences for CSK.

If postmortems inside the CSK dressing room involved re-watching the footage of the game, DC’s bowling innings would be ideal viewing on what to do in Dubai.

Much to Dhoni’s chagrin, DC didn’t just wiggle their way out of his spin grasp, but also managed to put on a show of their own that killed CSK’s chase. Shreyas Iyer challenged Shane Watson with his IPL pet-peeve – the left-arm spin of Axar Patel that has gotten the better of the Aussie on five occasions before. The tally was quickly pushed up to six when Axar dished out a hit-me short delivery. Watson got suckered into trying to clear the long mid-wicket boundary and failed.

“They’ve had a game on here [Dubai] and their plans, the way they bowled showed how to sort of play on this wicket,” Fleming admitted.

The same period where Shaw and Dhawan capitalised, CSK’s batters struggled. Axar bowled in tandem with the veteran Amit Mishra, who operated at about 10 kmphs slower than all the spinners in the game and made putting him away that much harder. Even for the in-form Faf du Plessis. CSK crawled to 47 for 3 in 10 overs and just couldn’t find it in them to stage a full-fledged recovery from there.

In the end, you could tip your hat to DC’s bowling executions while also pointing fingers at gaping inadequacies in CSK’s batting. CSK are first to experience the unfamiliar conditions in each of the three venues and have already identified several red flags in this teething process.

In the absence of Suresh Raina and the injured Ambati Rayudu, the intent at the top is missing. Fleming admitted to muddled thinking as far as strategies went, as well as the need to spend the coming six days ahead of their next fixture doing some ‘soul searching’.

But when Dhoni finishes a match with the words “I think the spinners have not come to the party yet”, you know where the real bone of contention is. More so, when CSK have arrived in UAE with a squad full of limitations, but with the intention of building success on their spin potency. Early assessment says CSK have quite a few problems, but spin bowling certainly shouldn’t be one.