Chennai Super Kings lost their second consecutive match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 campaign, going down to Sunrisers Hyderabad on Friday. The match needed an MS Dhoni special at the end but the wicket-keeper batter came out to bat with just three deliveries left. Former England captain Michael Vaughan found the decision by CSK skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad baffling, suggesting Dhoni should’ve been sent higher in the batting order to bat. Even former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan questioned the tactic by Ruturaj, suggesting CSK would’ve score more runs had Dhoni come out earlier.
Dhoni was brilliant with the bat when the Super Kings took on Delhi Capitals in the last match, scoring 16-ball 37. Yet, he came out to bat against the Sunrisers when just 3 deliveries were left in the innings. Vaughan, in a chat on Cricbuzz, couldn’t wrap his head around the decision.
“On the back of what he did in the last game, I’m amazed he did not come out to bat earlier. I can’t understand why he’s been out there for just three balls,” he said.
Even former Irfan Pathan felt that Dhoni could’ve handled SRH’s bowlers like Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jaydev Undakat better had he come out to bat sooner.
“Considering off cutter planning in to the pitch and match up against Bhuvi and Unadkat, Dhoni the right hand batsman should have batted up the order in this match vs SRH,” he tweeted amid CSK’s six-wicket loss.
Considering off cutter planning in to the pitch and match up against Bhuvi and Unadkat, Dhoni the right hand batsman should have batted up the order in this match vs SRH.
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) April 5, 2024
Speaking of the game, CSK skipper Ruturaj admitted that the team struggled to score in the last 5 overs and gave away too many runs in the powerplay.
“I think to be honest, it was a slow pitch, They bowled well in the back-end, kept the game in control and didn’t allow us to capitalize. I thought we did well in the beginning (of the match), but they came back well later. It was a black soil pitch, so we expected the pitch to be slower, but it became slower and slower, and they used the boundary size well. We conceded too many in the batting PP, one dropped catch and one expensive over. Still, to take them to the 19th over was a great effort.
“I thought anything around 170-175 would’ve been a good total for us. There was a bit of dew towards the end, but Moeen got the ball to spin even in the 15th-16th over. So I don’t think the pitch changed a lot during the course of the game,” he said.
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