CSK captain MS Dhoni lamented the lack of strike rotation by the CSK batter during the middle-overs phase, and especially against the three experienced Rajasthan Royals’ spinners – Chahal, Ashwin, and Zampa.
MS Dhoni, whose late assault of 32* off 17 balls went in vain as CSK went down by only 3 runs, reckoned it was the batters who had to take the responsibility for their loss against RR, on Wednesday night in Chepauk, falling just short of the target of 173 runs.
MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja almost pulled off another stunning victory, but it was left a bit too much for too late when CSK found themselves at 113/6 after 15 overs on a tricky pitch.
“I think in the middle overs we needed a bit more strike rotation, there wasn’t much for the spinners but they had experienced spinners and we could not rotate strike. It was not that difficult and the ownership (of the loss) should come from the batters,” MS Dhoni said in the post-match presentation.
After CSK lost Gaikwad early, scoring only 8 runs, Shivam Dube (8 off 9) and Moeen Ali (7 off 10) struggled to get going while Conway (50 off 38) was a bit too slow. Only Ajinkya Rashane (31 off 19) provided some impetus after the early loss of Gaikwad, but he couldn’t bat deep today as he did against MI.
MS Dhoni put up another special show for the CSK faithful.
He smashed 3 sixes in his entertaining knock, and two in the last over, to keep CSK’s hopes alive in the chase and dragged it till the last ball, but Sandeep Sharma kept his cool on the last ball to nail his yorker.
Speaking his batting, the CSK skipper said: “You see the field, see the bowler and what the bowler is trying to do, after that just stand still and wait for them to commit the mistake, if they bowl in good areas then good luck to them. I would wait for it and that is something which has worked for me, you need to back your strength and my strength is to hit straight. There was a bit of dew and once the ball went to the outfield it became easier for the batters.”
With this win, Sanju Samson’s team go to the top of the points table with 6 points in 4 matches and CSK are at the 5th spot with 2 wins and 2 losses.
