Chennai: Chennai Super Kings captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni wasn’t happy that his batsmen failed to read the slow Chepauk track and were not discreet in their shot selection during their six-wicket loss against Mumbai Indians in the first IPL Qualifier on Tuesday.
CSK could score only 131 for 4 batting first, a target that was surpassed in 18.3 overs. “At home, we had to assess the conditions quickly. We have played 6 to 7 games already, that’s the home advantage. We needed to know how the pitch behaves, would it be tacky? Is the ball coming on or not, those were the things we didn’t do well, I think the batting needs to get better,” CSK skipper didn’t mince words at the post-match presentation ceremony.
Dhoni was particularly critical about the fact that shot selection wasn’t the best in many cases during the past few games. “These are the best batsmen we have got, it looks like we are are batting well, but at times, but in different games, they pull off shots that shouldn’t be played. These are the players who we have banked on. They have the experience and they should know to assess the conditions better, hopefully, we will do well in the next game,” said.
While the spinners didn’t have a big total to defend, Dhoni thought that they should have bowled a bit wider from the batsmen. “I think we were a bit unlucky at times, some balls dropped right in the middle, a few catches weren’t taken. We perhaps had to bowl slightly away from the batsmen, we didn’t have runs on the board, every boundary conceded in a 130 defence is bad.”
He had a word of caution now that CSK has lost four out of their last six games but are still in the hunt having finished in the top two.
“It isn’t good to lose games at such times, but it is good that we finished in the top-two, rather then going over the wicket, we now need to go round the wicket, that means the journey takes a longer time. But luckily, we finished in the top-two and that gives us a second chance.”