MS Dhoni, skipper of the Chennai Super Kings, accepted responsibility for his team’s Saturday two-run loss to Royal Challengers Bangalore. He admitted that he should have played a few more shots to reduce the pressure during a tense match. CSK needed just four runs off the last ball, but the team had to face defeat there.
Ravindra Jadeja’s undefeated 77 off 45 balls and 17-year-old Ayush Mhatre’s outstanding 94 off 48 balls were insufficient to lead the side to victory. Jadeja and Mhatre’s partnership of 114 runs off just 64 balls for the third wicket kept Chennai on course for CSK in the run chase of 214. Dhoni scored 12 runs off 8 balls with the help of 1 six against RCB.
MS Dhoni gave a big statement after the defeat
However, Dhoni has praised Ayush Mhatre and Romario Shepherd for their brilliant performance in this run chase. MS Dhoni said after the match,
“I take the responsibility of not being able to achieve the target on myself, when I went in, and needed to score runs in the winning balls, I should have reduced the pressure by playing some more big shots. Shepherd batted brilliantly in the death overs, we were trying every way but despite this he was hitting every ball.”
Regarding bowling, he said,
“We have to practice bowling yorkers at the right length and this is one aspect where we need to improve. If we are unable to bowl yorkers, then we can consider bowling short balls as Pathirana does.”
RCB vs CSK match status
Royal Challengers Bangalore, who came to bat first after losing the toss, scored 213 runs on the board for the loss of 5 wickets in the stipulated 20 overs. Virat Kohli, Jacob Bethell and Romario Shepherd scored half centuries from Bangalore’s side. Ayush Mhatre scored 94 runs to chase this total, while Ravindra Jadeja scored an undefeated 77 runs for the Chennai Super Kings. But both of them could not make the team win. Lungi Ngidi was the most successful bowler of RCB with 3 wickets.
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