IPL 2018: We Were 15 Runs Short of a Par Total, Says Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Saturday believes that his team was at least 15 runs short of a competitive target. Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians finally ended their losing spree as they won the much-needed contest against arch-rivals Chennai Super Kings by eight wickets in Pune.

Rohit Sharma played a captain’s knock as he scored an unbeaten 56 to take his team over the line.

The stylish batsman Rohit was awarded the Man of the Match award. On the other hand, Super Kings managed to get the below-par total of 169 in their allotted 20 overs.

It was like a must-win encounter for the reigning champions Indians, as they have had their backs against the wall. This was their second win of the season as they didn’t have the best of starts to the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

It’s important to realize what went wrong: Dhoni

Dhoni said while talking at the post-match presentation, said they are bound to have a look at how things went wrong for the hosts.

“It’s important to realize what went wrong. Losses like these make you learn a lot. We’ve relied on brilliant individual performances, but here we were 10-15 short,” Dhoni said.

The Chennai skipper added that the Indians bowlers bowled better on the surface in the middle overs. Dhoni also added that the opposition spinners were superior as well.

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Dhoni went on to add, “Mumbai Indians bowled well in the middle overs. You need pace on this wicket, they bowled back of a length, so it wasn’t coming on. If you have pace, you can push the batsmen back. Playing cross-batted shots weren’t easy. Their spinners also bowled well. Choice of deliveries could’ve been better from our bowlers.”

MS Dhoni added that losses like these make a team more humble. Dhoni added it is imperative that the match went down to the wire as it has its impact on Net Run Rate in the later stages of the tournament.

“Losses like these make you humble. If you keep winning, you don’t know the areas you’ve to work hard. It’s a good game, gives us an idea of what we should do in such situations: whether we need to score 20 runs more. It’s still early in the competition,” Dhoni asserted.

Super Kings have won five matches out of the seven matches thus far.

The Men in Yellow will now take on Delhi Daredevils on April 30 at their adopted home ground of Pune under the leadership of Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

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