Things haven’t gone to plan for Chennai Super Kings in the 13th season of the Indian Premier League. Even before the start of the season, CSK were put on the backfoot as two key players Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh decided not to participate in the tournament this year due to personal reasons. Even though CSK started well with a win over Mumbai Indians, their campaign has tethered off in the last few matches.
The MS Dhoni-led side has now lost three consecutive matches in IPL 2020 and CSK are now languishing at the bottom position in the IPL points table. There have been problems in the batting department after Raina’s departure but issues have been compounded by a lacklustre effort in the field by CSK.
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After stumbling to a seven-run loss against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), Dhoni admitted that the side were repeating the same mistakes and dropped chances are hampering their chances.
CSK fielders were sloppy in the field. Abhishek got dropped twice in the 18th over, first by Ravindra Jadeja and then by Shardul Thakur. The former Indian skipper asserted that there are many positives from the game and the side will make a strong comeback.
“Long time back, we may or may not have lost three in a row. We have to get a lot of things right. It’s the professionalism -- dropping catches, bowling no-balls. We’re making the same mistakes again,” said Dhoni.
{{/usCountry}}“Long time back, we may or may not have lost three in a row. We have to get a lot of things right. It’s the professionalism -- dropping catches, bowling no-balls. We’re making the same mistakes again,” said Dhoni.
{{/usCountry}}“After the 16th over, we had two bad overs. Overall we could have been slightly better. Nobody wants to drop catches, but at this level, you have to draw a line that these catches have to be taken. Catches like these can really hamper your knockout games. What if this was a knockout game? There are many positives in this game. A few areas to improve and we’ll come back stronger,” he added.
SRH youngster Priyam Garg displayed a stunning performance against CSK. Priyam and Abhishek Sharma had rescued SRH from a disastrous start and enabled SRH to post 164 runs in 20 overs. Priyam smashed 51 runs in just 26 balls while Abhishek made a gutsy 31 after witnessing a bad start.
However, CSK fell seven runs short of the target and Dhoni admitted that he was not able to middle the ball early in the innings.
“I was not able to middle a lot of deliveries, maybe trying to hit the ball too hard. Looking at the outfield, it was subconscious. I’m alright, the throat begins to dry in these conditions,” said Dhoni during the post-match presentation via host broadcaster Star Sports.
CSK will next lock horns with Kings XI Punjab on Sunday.
(with ANI inputs)