The moment CSK lost the toss and were put in to bat, half of their advantage was already lost. CSK are a great chasing team but they struggle a bit when they have to set a total. They don’t seem to know what exactly to aim at and in the process end 15-20 runs short.
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In their 7th league match against MI too, CSK met the same fate. They batted first and ended with 170 odd. This game against KKR was almost a repeat telecast of the one against MI. The only differentiating factor was that Dhoni fired for CSK in this match.
Here are five things that CSK could have done differently to reverse the result of their fixture against KKR:
Maintain their scoring rate in the middle overs
From 91 for 2 in the 11th over after losing Watson’s wicket, CSK lost their way with the fall of the wickets of Watson, Raina and Rayudu in quick succession. This hampered the scoring rate big time and CSK who at one time looked all set for 200, ended up with 177.
KKR bowlers tightened the screws and did not allow the batsmen to score freely. This snatched the momentum away from CSK and from that point on they always kept chasing the game.
Ordinary fielding
The prime culprit of poor fielding was Ravindra Jadeja. Jadeja is otherwise associated with great fielding and does not drop much that comes his way. However, this proved to be a bad night for him as he dropped back to back catches off pacer KM Asif.
Harbhajan Singh too was sloppy in the field. Defending a relatively small total, one cannot afford to be so sloppy if they want to put the opposition under pressure.
Dhoni could have taken a lot more strike when batting with Jadeja
In the 19th and 20th overs when Jadeja and Dhoni were on the crease, Dhoni did not take as much strike as he would have liked. Generally, MSD denies the single and loves to be on the strike but in this match he took singles which ultimately led them to be 15-20 runs short. This proved to be the match defining thing.
The last over which was bowled by Piyush Chawla was a clear invitation for Dhoni to go for it. But he took a single off the first ball and lo and beholden Jadeja was once again on strike.
Rayudu chould have opened the batting
Rayudu has been used as a floater by MSD in the batting order. He has been shuffled too much but to his credit he has managed to perform well. However in this match, Rayudu came in at NO. 4 and though he scored 21 off 17 deliveries, he did not look at his best.
Bravo ahead of Jaddu in the batting order
A thing which has left many cricket pundits befuddled is Ravindra Jadeja being slotted above Dwayne Bravo in the batting order. One can’t help but think of the first match of IPL 2018 when Bravo gifted a win to CSK from the jaws of defeat.
Despite his initial heroics, Bravo has been pushed down the order and his batting prowess has been almost unused. Jadeja does not even come close to the hitting abilities of Bravo and ends eating up a lot of deliveries.
