XtraTime Web Desk: After losing the first playoff against Mumbai Indians at home Chennai Super Kings Captain MS Dhoni lashed out at his batsmen for their poor batting show and feels that the batting needs to get better if CSK are to win the do-or-die Qualifier 2 to make it to the final.
“Somebody has to lose, things really didn’t go our way, especially batting. At home, we had to assess the conditions quickly, we have played 6 to 7 games on this pitch and should have read the pitch better, that’s the home advantage. We needed to know how the pitch behaves, would it be tacky? Is the ball coming on or not, those were the things we didn’t do well, I think the batting needs to get better.
“These are the best batsmen we have got, it looks like we are are batting well, but at times, but in different games, they pull off shots that shouldn’t be played. These are the players who we have banked on, they have the experience and they should know to assess the conditions better, hopefully, we will do well in the next game,” Dhoni said in the post-match press conference.
Dhoni further said that the total of 131 runs was below par and some fielding errors cost them big in the game. However, the CSK skipper said he was happy with the fact that his team will get another chance to bounce back against the winner of the first Eliminator.
“I think we were a bit unlucky at times (talking about bowling), some balls dropped right in the middle, a few catches weren’t taken. We perhaps had to bowl slightly away from the batsmen, could have slowed down the pace and bowl with more variations. But we didn’t have runs on the board, so every boundary conceded in a 130 defence was bad. It isn’t good to lose games at such times, but it is good that we finished in the top-two, rather than going over the wicket (straight to the finals), we now need to go round the wicket (to qualifier 2), that means the journey takes a longer time. But luckily, we finished in the top two and that gives us a second chance,” he said.