On Tuesday night, in a stiff chase of the 217-run target set by Rajasthan Royals, it was pretty baffling to see MS Dhoni not bat up the order and reserve himself to No. 7 during the Chennai Super Kings innings. With CSK at one stage reduced to 77/3 in the ninth over, the stage was set for Dhoni to take centre stage before unleashing ‘the finisher’ in him. But instead, Dhoni let Ruturaj Gaikwad and Kedar Jadhav bat ahead of him.
After the match, Dhoni explained the reason behind keeping himself at No. 7, saying he wanted to give opportunities to others knowing that he hasn’t batted in a long time. Sam Curran, who had a crucial role to play with the bat against Mumbai Indians, was sent at No. 4 again. In the end, Faf du Plessis played a magnificent knock of 72 off 27 balls but it wasn’t enough for CSK to get over the line in Match 4 of the IPL 2020
“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 after the match.
Dhoni eventually finished with 29 off 17 balls, including hitting a hat-trick of sixes in the final over bowled by Sam’s brother, Tom Curran. Earlier, in reply to RR’s total, CSK’s opening pair of Murali Vijay and Shane Watson had put on 56 in 6.3 overs, but Dhoni reckoned his team needed an even better start.
“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.”
