‘CSK’s Math is not mathing’: MS Dhoni, Fleming stung by Dale Steyn for batting Ashwin, Jadeja in top 5
IPL 2025, CSK vs RR: Former South Africa pacer Dale Steyn tore into Chennai Super Kings management after another top-order collapse against Rajasthan Royals.
Former South Africa pacer Dale Steyn minced no words as he lambasted MS Dhoni and Stephen Fleming for another Chennai Super Kings' (CSK) top-order collapse against Rajasthan Royals in an Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 match at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. The Proteas legend ripped into the management for sending Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja at No.4 and 5 after an early loss of the first three wickets.
Steyn labelled Ashwin and Jadeja as bowlers, clearly questioning their prowess with the bat in hand. In the match against Sanju Samson and co, both Ashwin and Jadeja disappointed as the duo scored 13 and 1 respectively.
When Ashwin and Jadeja were batting together, CSK had batters like Shivam Dube and Dewald Brevis back in the hut, waiting for their chance to go out in the middle.
CSK lost their first five wickets with just 78 runs on the board. All the batters went hell for leather right from the get-go. However, this approach did not pay dividends as Rajasthan struck at regular interviews.
“CSK 3 down and they send 2 bowlers to bat. Sometimes I feel their math is not mathing," Steyn wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Among the top five batters, Ayush Mhatre was the top-scorer as he played a knock of 43 runs off 20 balls with the help of eight fours and one six. CSK's batting failures are one of the prime reasons behind the five-time champions languishing at the bottom of the table with just three wins.
Battle for the wooden spoon
If Rajasthan Royals lose against CSK, then they would end up as the wooden spooners as this is their last league stage game of the ongoing season of the IPL.
Both CSK and SunRisers Hyderabad would have leapfrogged Samson and co if Rajasthan Royals were to lose. CSK and Rajasthan Royals were the first two teams to be eliminated from the playoffs race.
Earlier, Rajasthan captain Sanju Samson won the toss and opted to bowl first.
At the toss, Dhoni said, “We want to express ourselves in our batting department. Need to figure out which individual will do well in which slot next year. Need to work on our bowling. Once we were out of the tournament, we wanted to find the answers for the next year.”
“Need to look in to the combination and a couple of players we can pick in auction. We are on a roll in the batting department and we want to continue doing that, we struggled at the start of the season. When you are constantly under pressure that doesnt' work. You don't need to play all kind of shots, need to be selective,” he added.
