Captain MS Dhoni believes Chennai’s batsmen let down the team’s bowlers in their IPL defeat to Kolkata Knight Riders.
Super Kings slipped to a 10-run defeat when chasing down the 168 set by the Knight Riders. The defeat even came after opener Shane Watson had made his second successive 50 to lay the foundations for the win.
However, a poor back end to the innings saw CSK stumble to a fourth loss in five matches in IPL 2020.
Captain Dhoni knew exactly why his team fell disappointingly short.
He said: “In the middle overs, there was a phase when they bowled two-three good overs. Then we lost two-three wickets in a row. If our batting was different during that period, the result would have been different.”
The bowlers had shared out the wickets to give Chennai an achievable target.
Dwayne Brave ended with 3-37 and Sam Curran, Shardul Thakur and Karn Sharma all bagged two wickets each.
“Initially we gave away a few too many with the new ball,” added the skipper.
“Karn (Sharma) did really well. The bowlers did well to bring them down to 160-odd. As a team we should have achieved the target, but the batsmen let the bowlers down.”
CSK Needed More Innovation
Dhoni, who was out for 17 off the bowling of spinner Varun Chakravarthy, thinks more innovation was required.
He added: “Rotation of strike is always important. At times we have to judge the deliveries. There were hardly any boundaries in the last three overs.
“You have to be slightly innovative in these scenarios. If someone is bowling just back of a length, you have to find a way to hit boundaries. We did not adapt well.”
Chennai return to action when they face RCB in Dubai on Saturday.
Karthik Hails “Fluid” KKR
Meanwhile, opposing skipper Dinesh Karthik was pleased with his team.
He praised the flexibility of Kolkata's batting line-up after the narrow success.
He said: “Our batting is very fluid. I started at 3, I am batting at 7. That is the good thing.
“Over the years, fluid line-ups have done better. The way they batted at the start they did really well, but at the back end I had great faith in Sunny and Varun. That paid off for me.”
