IPL 2022: What really let Chennai Super Kings down was the batsmanship, says MS Dhoni

Pune, May 5

Chennai Super Kings skipper MS Dhoni felt that his side suffered a let down in the batting efforts, causing a 13-run defeat to Royal Challengers Bangalore at MCA Stadium on Wednesday.

In a chase of 174, Chennai began well with 51/0 in power-play and Devon Conway getting 56. But the rest of the batters couldn't do much, falling to slower balls as Chennai were restricted to 160/8.

"We did well to restrict them to 170 runs. What really let us down was the batsmanship. I feel especially when we are chasing, you know what's required on the board and what the bowlers are doing," said Dhoni after the match.

In the last 30 balls, Chennai needed 56 runs but with batters unable to stay at the crease for long, the defending champions fell short of the target. "At times you have to curb your instinct and try to see what the situation is demanding rather than just play your shot. If the batsmanship had been slightly better, maybe in the last few overs we wouldn't have needed many runs," observed Dhoni.

Dhoni admitted that Chennai losing wickets in a heap wasn't ideal at all. "We got off to a good start, we had wickets in hand and the wicket kept getting better. It's just that we kept losing wickets at regular intervals. If you take care of those things, chasing is more about calculation and batting first is more about instinct."

Dhoni signed off by saying that once the processes are right for Chennai, the results will be better reflected on the points table.

"As a batter in the middle, you have to decide on those things. We need to keep looking at what went wrong. It's easy to get distracted by how many points you have. It's the process that matters more than where you are positioned in the points table. If you take care of those things, then the points table will take care of itself."