MS Dhoni lashes out at batsmen, says ‘batting has to be better’ after Mumbai Indians loss

Chennai Super Kings had endured a torrid time against Mumbai Indians in the league stages of the 2019 Indian Premier League. The three-time champions suffered a defeat at the Wankhede stadium and they lost for the first time at the MA Chidambaram stadium after four years to Rohit Sharma’s side. In the first qualifier of IPL 2019, Chennai Super Kings suffered their fourth consecutive loss to Mumbai Indians as they were hammered by six wickets. Chennai Super Kings will now face the winner of the Eliminator between Delhi Capitals and Sunrisers Hyderabad in Vizag and following the loss, Chennai Super Kings skipper MS Dhoni has lashed out at the batsmen for their shot selection.

“At home, we had to assess the conditions quickly. We have played 6 to 7 games already, 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 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.

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Stephen Fleming, the Chennai Super Kings coach, also said the batsmen needed to bat well in the powerplay if the team had to do well.

“It (pacing the innings) is tough. That is the problem we are finding, we are so far behind in powerplays. We are doing things right from overs 6 to 20, the run rate today I think was 7 and (then) 10 (in the last six overs). We're getting the right runs there, (but) we are just finding ourselves behind in powerplays. You run the risk if you over-attacked in the middle in those conditions, you can find yourself bowled out for 100. So you've got to have an element of safety. By the time you get that it's around 14 overs, from there we were able to go at 10 an over which got us through to a competitive score. But we need to have more balance in the first six overs -- around 40 would be nice. That may get you to a score of 150-160 which can be a match-winning score. We're just falling behind at different stages but it's the first six that are holding us back. Maybe we just throw the shackles off and have a crack in the next game and see if we can just get ourselves into form and confidence,” Fleming said.

Chennai Super Kings await the winner of Delhi Capitals vs Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Eliminator in Vizag, with Shreyas Iyer’s team aiming to win a playoff match for the first time in their history.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Chennai Super Kings lost for the fourth consecutive time to Mumbai Indians.
• Mumbai Indians reached the final of the IPL for the fifth time.
• Delhi Capitals will take on Sunrisers Hyderabad in the eliminator.