There’s simply no end to Chennai Super Kings (CSK)’s struggles with the bat this Indian Premier League (IPL) season. After bowlers put in a remarkable show to restrict Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at a score of 167 runs, the CSK batting unit choked in the chase once again on Wednesday. Standing at the losing end for the 4th time in this campaign, Chennai skipper MS Dhoni admitted that ‘the batsmen let the bowlers down’.
CSK returned to winning ways against Kings XI Punjab with a 10-wicket win, thanks to Faf du Plessis and Shane Watson, but against the Knight Riders, Du Plessis departed early, giving the middle-order an opportunity to take the onus and win the match for the team. Ambati Rayudu’s 30, however, was the best CSK middle-order could manage as the likes of Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni, Sam Curran and Ravindra Jadeja endured repeated failures with the bat.
Speaking at the post-match presentation, Dhoni conceded that there was a need to rotate the strike more often and hit boundaries in the middle overs which his team failed to do.
“In the middle overs there was a phase where they bowled 2-3 good overs. If we batted better, and didn’t lose 2-3 wickets in a row, We should’ve been careful in the first 5-6 overs. Curran was really good with the ball, and I think we did well in general with the ball, but the batsmen let the bowlers down today,” said the 39-year-old.
“Rotation of strike was important, but I think there were hardly any boundaries in the final few overs, so we need to be innovative at the end when they are continuously hitting a back of a length. That’s where we need to adapt better with the bat and I don’t think we did that,” he added.
