Dhoni Post Match Presentation Today: Who Did CSK Captain Blame After Loss to Punjab Kings in Chennai?

Chennai Super Kings captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (13*) rued the ordinary execution by his batters and bowlers during a particular phase in each of the innings today as reason for his team’s loss against the Punjab Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.

Having posted a challenging total of 200/4 on the board after opting to bat first, CSK lost the match on the final delivery as Matheesha Pathirana failed to defend three runs off the last ball, to hand the Shikhar Dhawan-led side a 4-wicket victory.

This also happens to be the first loss suffered by the ‘Yellow Army’ at Chennai in a day IPL game after opting to bat first. Moreover, having won at the Chepauk for the first time since 2012, PBKS became the only team to successfully chase down a target in excess of the 200-run mark here in IPL history.

MS Dhoni Post Match Presentation Today

Despite suffering back-to-back losses, Dhoni was yet again as articulate as ever while speaking during the post-match presentation. While he was not really severe on the performances of his players, he stressed on need for his bowlers to come up with a clear plan when they are pretty sure that the batters will come hard at them.

While he partly blamed two bad overs during the chase for the loss, he also felt that the team total was short by at least 10-15 runs after batting first.

Bowled by pacer Tushar Deshpande (3/49) and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja (12 & 2/32) respectively, Super Kings leaked a combined of 41 runs in the 16th and 17th overs. While Deshpande’s over was described as a game-changing moment by visiting all-rounder Sikandar Raza (1/31 & 13*), Punjab had reduced the equation from 72 in five overs to 31 in three overs on the back of these overs.

Overall, while admitting that his bowling unit is still inexperienced as a whole and requires a bit of exposure, Dhoni remarked that it is the batters who will have to provide the extra cushion for them.

“We lost it in a couple of overs in the middle. You need to be aware what you need to bowl and be clear because the batters will be going for it. Also, towards the end of our innings, could we have got 10 more? Because our bowling needs exposure, and we should be doing better with the bat”, Dhoni told host broadcaster Star Sports Network during the post-match presentation ceremony.

Click here to watch Dhoni’s post-match presentation byte today.