IPL 2020: The batsmen let the bowlers down today, says MS Dhoni

Chennai Super Kings skipper MS Dhoni stated after their loss against Kolkata Knight Riders that the team's batsmen who did not deliver what was required on the night. CSK had done really well to restrict KKR to just 167 in their 20 overs. Dwayne Bravo was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3-37.

Chasing 168 to win, CSK were in the driver's seat after the first 10 overs as they required 78 runs off 60 balls with 9 wickets in hand. But they somehow managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and in the end fell short by 10 runs.

"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," MS Dhoni said after the game.

There were hardly any boundaries in the final few overs: MS Dhoni

The CSK middle-order, especially Kedar Jadhav, were finding it difficult to find the boundaries towards the death

CSK looked to be cruising to victory when the last half of their innings began. But KKR skipper Dinesh Karthik played a masterstroke by holding back his main spinners Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy for the back end of the innings as he knew the pitch would get slower.

CSK batsmen kept on losing wickets at crucial junctures and that cost them dearly as they could not even rotate the strike properly. MS Dhoni, thus, is of the opinion that CSK will have to be more innovative in their shot selection, especially during the slog overs in the next games.

"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," MS Dhoni said.

CSK will now play their next game against the Royal Challengers Bangalore at Dubai on 10th October.