Chennai Super Kings (CSK) have won 3 IPL Championships in the history of the competition and are only second to Mumbai Indians who have 4 wins. CSK have had a phenomenal run in IPL Championships under the leadership of MS Dhoni and were the runner-ups in 2019.
Before IPL 2020 started, bettors backed CSK to win another IPL Championship as bookies had CSK in the top three ranked teams who were favorites to win. However, bettors have been disappointed with CSK as they have lost three consecutive games in a row and now sit at the bottom of the IPL points table in 8th place.
Rayudu and Bravo Return For CSK
CSK fans remained optimistic after the first two losses against Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Capitals believing that CSK would be a lot stronger once A Rayudu and D Bravo were included. The two players came back into the squad for the game against Sunrisers Hyderabad but it did not change the result as CSK ended up losing by 7 runs.
CSK did a reasonable good job in restricting Sunrisers to just 164 but should have been able to keep them to an even lower score if they did put in a better performance in the field. CSK were guilty of bowling no balls, dropping catches and letting their bowlers down when it mattered. CSK also put in a poor performance with the bat that cost them the game.
CSK Botches Up Chase
CSK lost early wickets and were content to play a slow game and leave things to the end, like they always do under the captaincy of MS Dhoni. S Watson failed yet again with the bat and Faf du Plessis fell just as he was getting set. MS Dhoni came in at 5 and struggled to get going as he could not find his timings.
He put together a good partnership with R Jadeja that gave CSK the platform to chase down a reasonable total of 164. However, CSK paid too much respect to leggie R Khan and let him send down his 4 overs for just 12 runs. When R Jadeja (50 from 35) balls got out, CSK needed 50 runs from 14 balls and it was going to be up to MS Dhoni to take charge.
However, MSD struggled with the running between wickets and looked extremely tired and fatigued. He was unable to take charge of the innings and it was up to young Sam Curran to play the big shots. Curran played a nice little knock scoring 15 runs of 5 balls at a strike rate of 300. CSK were unable to chase down the total in their allotted overs and MSD remained unbeaten on 47 from 36 balls at a strike rate of 130.
CSK botched up the chase as they had wickets in hand and should have taken more risks in the middle overs instead of leaving it to the end.
MSD Says CSK Needs To Be More Professional
MSD chose to see things from a different perspective and said that CSK has failed because they have not been very professional. Dhoni cited the dropped catches and no balls as being complacent in the field but did not say anything about the botched chase.
The truth of the matter is that MS Dhoni from the past was a master of the chase and could get CSK over the line in situations that were a lot more difficult than what they faced against Sunrisers. However, MS Dhoni is no longer the player he once was and his strategy of leaving things till the death is working against him because he cannot deliver like before.
CSK and MSD also need to get their batting combination correct as the S Watson experiment is not working and K Jadhav is not delivering in the middle-order. If CSK is going to bounce back and make a bid for making it to the playoffs, they need to get their playing XI correct.
