MS Dhoni criticizes Faf du Plessis and Shane Watson despite them doing well in Qualifier 2 vs DC

Dhoni criticizes Faf du Plessis and Shane Watson: Chennai Super Kings captain unveiled his expectations from opening batsmen.

Chennai Super Kings captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni opened up on several facets of the game after reaching the IPL 2019 final. Speaking during the post-match presentation ceremony, Dhoni was contended about Super Kings coming back into the match despite committing some errors.

“It’s the usual route [to get to the final through the eliminator and second qualifier], last year was an exception. The kind of response the boys gave was brilliant. You’ll go for runs, miss a few catches, but it’s important to come back strong. The way we batted to chase down 140+ was really nice,” Dhoni was quoted as saying.

In both the matches played at Visakhapatnam, the wicket appeared to be on the slower side. Being asked about the same, Dhoni held the ground staff responisble for the same. “That’s what the 7:30 start does, the ground staff feel obliged to water it, and it’s a little tacky initially, making it difficult to score. The spinners got more turn because of that,” Dhoni said.

Dhoni praises Super Kings’ bowlers

Having restricted the opposition to 147/9 in 20 overs, Chennai’s bowlers joined hands in the big match to not let the opposition batsmen force attack on them. Eulogizing about his bowlers, Dhoni believed his bowlers taking wickets at regular intervals came good for them.

“The bowling effort was brilliant, and we kept it in the right areas, not allowing Delhi to get a big score. It’s important to get their openers out – their batting line-up is really strong and they have many left-handers and we have a left-arm spinner to negate them.

“The ground is a little small, so it is important for them to keep getting wickets. The timing of the wickets was very important because it was difficult for new batsmen to come and hit the big shots straightaway,” Dhoni added.

While Dhoni was credited for bringing out the best from his bowlers, he ended up literally thanking his bowlers and laid emphasis on them putting in the hard yards to aiding the teams to reach the final. “I think the credit needs to go to the spinners, the captain only asks them that I will use you at this point of time. When they get the ball, it’s up to them.

“Experience counts, but they have to do the hard yards to stay fit for 45-50 days and be at their best and playing in hot conditions. We are happy we haven’t had many injuries [other than the players at the start] and thanks to the bowling department for that – we are here because of them,” Dhoni further added.

Dhoni criticizes Faf du Plessis and Shane Watson

Despite both Faf du Plessis and Shane Watson scoring individual half-centuries, Dhoni found faults with their approach of unnecessarily playing the big shots. Before concluding, Dhoni was vocal about him wanting his top-order batsmen to play with more responsibility in knockout matches.

“I would have preferred the openers to get a few more runs because in knockout games, there’s no reason to go after the bowlers when the RRR is below six.

“If the openers had stayed and done the finishing after the hard yards. Why not stay till the end and get the runs under your belt [from the openers]? That would have been better, different captains have different views about that, but I’m happy to take the win any way,” Dhoni concluded.