MS Dhoni, the interim captain of the Chennai Super Kings, accepted “blame” after his team was unable to complete a run chase that appeared to be on course for the most part. When Dhoni came out to bat, CSK was chasing 214 and needed 42 off 21 balls. With dew all about, the equation, which came down to 35 from the final three overs, appeared to be within reach, especially at a field where 22 sixes had already been hammered up to that point in the game.
However, Dhoni and a composed Ravindra Jadeja, who was then batting at 65* off 36, were only able to score six runs off legspinner Suyash Sharma in the 18th over. After CSK needed 15 runs from the final over, Dhoni was unable to lead his team home after hitting a maximum off Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the 19th over. In a replay of the Bengaluru match between the two teams from the previous year, he was defeated by Yash Dayal once more.
Dhoni stated that he should have converted a few more shots when Ravi Shastri asked him at the post-match presentation where CSK might have made a mistake.
“Well, I think looking at the over, when I went into that with the kind of deliveries and the runs needed, I felt I should have converted maybe a couple of more shots and that would have eased the pressure,” Dhoni said. “So, I would take the blame for it.”
It would have been disappointing for CSK to lose after holding Royal Challengers Bengaluru to a minimum in the middle overs and then launching a run chase that never felt like it was falling behind. However, in the last few overs of both innings, CSK, to be honest, lost it. Even though Romario Shepherd’s 14-ball 53* earlier in the evening put them out of their misery, their batting was unable to support the run-chase in somewhat more favorable circumstances.
“I thought they got off to a good start. In between, we pulled it back. But Romario Shepherd, in the death overs, was brilliant, ” Dhoni said. “Whatever our bowlers were bowling, he was able to get maximum runs.”
In the final overs, what could the bowlers for CSK have done differently? When Dhoni said, “I think we need to practice more yorkers,” “Because, as you can see, you have to rely on yorkers when the batsman begins to connect, and there isn’t much room for error. This makes a low full toss one of the hardest balls to hit, so if you can’t get the ideal yorker, this is the next best thing. Therefore, I believe that’s where we need to get better.
“And somebody like a [Matheesha] Pathirana, if the yorkers are not happening, he has got pace. He can bowl a bouncer at the same time, keep the batsman guessing. Because, at times, if he’s looking for the yorker, batsmen try to line him up, and if he misses, the batsman has a chance of hitting.”
