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Legendary MS Dhoni took over as captain of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) once again after Ruturaj Gaikwad was ruled out of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 due to injury. Many expected that CSK's fourtunes will change after Dhoni takes over but they registered a new low in Chepauk against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). They managed to post a lowly score of 103/9. Once again, Dhoni held himself back, sent impact player Deepak Hooda ahead of himself and walked out to bat at no.9. While many would argue that Dhoni should've come earlier, his former teammate Virender Sehwag feels otherwise. Sehwag said that the maximum they could've reached under the circumstances was 130.
"I doubt CSK would have won even if MS Dhoni had batted. How many would they have scored? 120? How many overs did KKR chase the target in? 10.2 [10.1 overs]? We would have come live at 11:30 PM, that's about it," Sehwag said on Star Sports after KKR's comprehensive eight-wicket win.
Dhoni walked out to bat in the 15th over after Hooda lost his wicket for a duck to Varun Chakravarthy. The wicketkeeper-batter scored just a single from four balls. He was dismissed lbw by Narine. CSK were 79/9 in 17.2 overs. Had it not been for Shivam Dube's unbeaten 29-ball 31, CSK would not have crossed the 100-run mark.
Dhoni rues not getting partnerships
Dhoni said that it has been a challenging few matches for CSK. He pointed out that the pitch behaved in the first innings similar to what it did in the second innings last time.
"It has been quite a few nights that has not gone our way. The challenge has been there, we have to accept the challenge. Today I felt we did not have enough runs on the board. It has been the case over there, when we bowled in the 2nd innings it stopped a bit, today it did in the first innings. When you lose too many wickets, there is pressure and with quality spinners it is difficult. We never got any partnerships and bit more partnerships, application and we would be fine," Dhoni said.
Dhoni defends lack of power in powerplay overs
CSK have the lowest scoring rate in the powerplay overs this season. They managed to score 31 against KKR. However, Dhoni defended the top-order batters for not going after the bowlers during the fielding restrictions.
"What is important is to see the conditions, couple of games we have done decently well, back your strengths and play the shots you can play. Not match to someone's else play. Our openers are good openers, play authentic cricket shots, they don't slog or look to hit across the line. It is important not to get desperate seeing the scorecard. If we start looking for 60 with our lineup it will be very difficult for us. Get partnerships going, maybe capitalise in the middle and later overs and if we lose wickets, the middle order has to do their job differently. And the slog will be delayed for quite a while," he added.
CSK are currently ninth on the points table with five losses from six games. Their next game is against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on April 14.
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