Chennai Super Kings skipper MS Dhoni has defended his decision to come to bat at Number seven for CSK against Rajasthan Royals. CSK had the won the toss and chosen to field, as RR ran rampage at the Sharjah International stadium scoring 216 runs.
RR’s Sanju Samson got 74 runs off 32 balls including nine sixes and one four gave Rajasthan a superb start to the game where they made 216 runs. RR skipper Steve Smith also played an important inning of 69 runs.
Faf du Plessis coming at the number three spot was the only big scorer for the Chennai based side, making 72 runs off 37 balls. Shane Watson opened and could only manage 33 runs. The Chennai based side have played two matches in the IPL 2020 now, winning and losing one each.
MS Dhoni defends his decision of coming to bat at number seven for CSK
CSK skipper MS Dhoni had last played a competitive match in the ODI World Cup 2019 and has now returned on the pitch in the IPL after 14 months. MSD stated that he hasn’t batted for a long time and the recent training hasn’t helped much.
He came in at the number seven spot and had a slow start to the game but went on to hit three consecutive sixes in the last over of the match, scoring 29 runs off 17 balls. Dhoni said, he wanted to give an opportunity to all-rounder Sam Curran, who has been exceptional for the side in the new campaign.
Dhoni restated they have the opportunity early in the campaign to try different things and if it doesn’t work they can always go back to their usual strengths.
“I haven’t batted for a long time. 14-day quarantine doesn’t help (why he isn’t batting higher). Also wanted to try different things, give opportunities to Sam. Have the opportunity to try different things. If it doesn’t work, you can always go back to your strengths. Faf adapted very well. Something the batsmen will do, neglect square leg and go more towards long-on and long-off,” Dhoni said in a post match interview.
Need to give credit to RR bowlers: MS Dhoni
Dhoni said they lacked the good start which was needed to chase the massive total of 217 runs set on the board. He commended Steve Smith and Sanju Samson’s batting and also the RR bowlers. Dhoni pointed out the one thing RR spinners did right was to keep the ball away from the batsman. He also stated, if they could restrict RR to 200 it would have been a good game.
“With 217 on the board, we needed a very good start which was not the case. Steve and Samson batted very well. Need to give credit to their bowlers,” Dhoni said.
“Once you’ve seen the first innings, you know the length to bowl. Their spinners did well to bowl away from the batsman. Our spinners made the error to bowl too full. If we would’ve maybe restricted them to 200, it would’ve been a good game,” Dhoni concluded.
Chennai Super Kings will play their next game against Delhi Capitals on September 25 in the Dubai International Stadium.