Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni blamed batting failures for CSK’s 10-run defeat against Kolkata in their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 clash at Abu Dhabi, UAE, on Wednesday (October 7).
Chasing an target of 168 for victory, CSK were comfortably placed at 99 for 1 after 12 overs but a middle-order collapse changed the course of the game and the Dhoni-led side ended up with 157 for 5 in 20 overs.
Dhoni noted that the CSK lost the match in the second-half of their innings and said that it high time that CSK batsmen should start performing.
“In the middle overs there was a phase where they bowled 2-3 good overs. If we batted better, and didn’t lose 2-3 wickets in a row,. We should’ve been careful in the first 5-6 overs. Curran was really good with the ball, and I think we did well in general with the ball, but the batsmen let the bowlers down today,” Dhoni said at the post-match presentation
“Rotation of strike was important, but I think there were hardly any boundaries in the final few overs, so we need to be innovative at the end when they are continuously hitting a back of a length. That’s where we need to adapt better with the bat and I don’t think we did that,” he added.
This is was CSK’s fourth defeat in IPL 2020 and they are currently at 5th spot on the points table, while KKR jumped a place to 3rd after registering three wins in 5 games.
CSK will now clash with Royal Challengers Bangalore in Dubai on Saturday, while KKR will play against Kings XI Punjab in Abu Dhabi on the same day.
