MS Dhoni was a a little mellow during his post match presentation, as CSK had succumbed to a rather tame loss against the languishing DD side.
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Dhoni won the toss and put DD into bat, as he felt that at the Kotla, it would be a little difficult to defend a score.
DD did make a decent enough start, as Pant and Iyer struck a partnership together, with Pant threatening to cut loose. However, after Pant got out, it seemed like the impetus was missing from the innings.
And then turned up Harshal Patel, who took a liking to the CSK death bowling and hit them to all parts of the ground.
26 runs came off that final Bravo over and that sort of set up the game for DD, as the Kotla wicket got slower and slower in the 2nd innings.
Rayudu and Watson had gotten off to the perfect start in the run-chase, with Rayudu being very assertive with his shot making. But after he got out, it seemed like a huge struggle for the CSK batsmen to time the ball.
MS Dhoni spoke about the loss and what CSK need to do in the playoffs to win IPL 2018.
“I think the wicket slightly got more difficult in the second half. I think it was evident, nobody was middling it well in our innings. Wicket kept getting slower and slower. Their bowlers also bowled really well. Difficult to predict how the wicket behaves, sometimes it behaves well and sometimes it turns like this. I think if we batted better, we needed someone to score those extra 15-20 runs.
“Specially looking at the wicket, not that fussed. Have to be practical looking at the wicket as long as we know where we went wrong. Something going wrong is a part and parcel but if you know the reason why it went wrong, it becomes easier to come back from that. We know the reasons and what we could have done slightly different. Overall, yes, slightly disappointed with the loss but I don’t think we could have done much.
Dhoni went onto mention that CSK absolutely need to get those partnerships in the middle order if they want to have any chance of winning IPL 2018
“What I told them is not to look at the points table, take it one game at a time. Keep strengthening what your strengths are, at the same time also strengthen your weaknesses. We also want to improve in certain areas. Apart from the openers, we need to get partnerships in the middle order. We’ve not used too many batsmen in this tournament so far but anybody can get opportunities from hereon. They need to be mentally ready for this than physically. I think apart from that, we are doing well. If we get our death bowling sorted out, it will be very good. Still have one more game and then into the eliminators (playoffs), so let’s see.
“We’ll try to manage it, that’s what the reality is. At the end of the day, you can give 100 different plans to the bowlers, depends on his strength and the conditions. Lot of times, you’ll have to shuffle the bowlers according to how the wicket is doing, that’s what we’ll have to do in the playoffs. Those are the games when you need to be at your best. It includes everybody, anyone can have an off day but if someone can chip in with one or two overs, we can cover it up. That’s the real time when everyone has to play as a team.” he concluded.
