IPL 2019: We Don't Have Bowlers Who Hit The Deck: MS Dhoni
Credits: BCCI

MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings suffered their first loss of the season and the defeat came against their bitter rivals Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday.

Chasing 171, Chennai Super Kings were off to a disastrous manner. Jason Behrendorff accounted for Ambati Rayudu in the very first over before Lasith Malinga sent back Shane Watson in the second to leave Chennai Super Kings reeling at 6 for 2.  Suresh Raina and Kedar Jadhav then stopped the rot for a while. But just when it looked like they had their eyes set, Kieron Pollard pulled off a breathtaking catch to send back Raina for 16.

Jadhav kept going strong while holding firm from one end but the likes of MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja failed to get going. Consequently, Chennai Super Kings found themselves 5 down for just 89.

Jadhav soon brought his fifty but could not last long and became the sixth Super Kings wicket to fall with the scoreboard reading just 108. In that same over, Dwayne Bravo departed too. The Super Kings were eventually restricted to 133 for 8.

Earlier in the game, Super Kings had conceded 88 runs in the final six overs and 45 in the last two as Mumbai Indians recovered from 50 for 3 to post 170 for 5.

Speaking after the game, MS Dhoni admitted that a ‘few things went wrong’ for his side. He also rued the absence of a pacer in the team who can hit the deck hard. The legendary skipper went on to explain how things are going to get tougher for his team as Bravo is having an injury while David Willey and Lungi Ngidi are not with the team.

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I think quite a few things went wrong for us. We started well, were right on the mark for the first 10-12 overs. Then, a few catches were dropped, a few misfields, the death overs bowling wasn’t great. We don’t have bowlers who hit the deck, it was slightly tough on them. We do have one-on-one plans, we needed to know where we could cut-off the boundaries, which batsmen to target, a boundary less or two could have made a difference to a 10-12 run over or a 7-run over.

IPL 2019: We Don't Have Bowlers Who Hit The Deck: MS Dhoni
Credits: BCCI

“We needed to build some momentum, but we need to know when to plan for those. It is a tough thing – this so-called momentum, it doesn’t really matter, a good start from the bowlers will make things tight, once you set the tone, the game goes along in that flow. We will have to see the wicket for the next game, we have to see the combination. Bravo has an hamstring injury, we don’t have a few players, we already have some injuries, David Willey isn’t there, he has his own problems, Lungi Ngidi isn’t with us as well, we will have to look at the pitch and then decide on the right combination,” said MS Dhoni.

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