"Just stand straight and wait for them to commit mistakes" - MS Dhoni on his batting approach in death overs

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain MS Dhoni played an entertaining knock to take the team on the brink of victory against the Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Wednesday, April 12.

The senior cricketer scored an unbeaten 32 off 17 deliveries, but it was not enough as Sanju Samson and Co. etched a close win by three runs.

MS Dhoni came into bat in the 15th over, with the equation reading 63 runs still needed for victory. The former India skipper, in typical fashion, took his time at the crease, negotiating the last portion of Ravichandran Ashwin's scathing spell, before taking on bowlers with Ravindra Jadeja at the other end.

The duo brought the equation down to 21 runs required off the final over, and while Dhoni struck two consecutive sixes in the final over, he could not overcome Sandeep Sharma's accurate set of yorkers to close out the contest.

Following the match, Dhoni spoke about how he generally approaches death overs, an area of the game he has mastered.In a post-match interview with the broadcasters, he said:

"You see the field, you see the bowler and you plan as to what the bowler's strength is. After that just stand still and wait for them to commit mistakes. I don't fancy too many things and do a lot of things. If they bowl the right areas then well done to them."

Dhoni further explained that he prefers to back his strengths and capitalize on the under-pressure bowler's mistakes.

"At the end of the day the bowler is under pressure. Even if he misses by a few inches you can hit it for a sixes. You need to back your strength. We saw the amount of dew - yesterday also there was a lot of dew. After the first few overs when it goes into the outfield, it gets slightly easy," he added.

The encounter between CSK and RR was MS Dhoni's 200th outing as captain for the four-time winners in the IPL.

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"So the ownership has to come from the batters" - MS Dhoni on where CSK went wrong during the run chase

The CSK skipper felt that the batters had to be more proactive in the middle overs and lamented the lack of strike rotation as the reason behind their loss.

RR spinners were able to spin a web over the likes of Devon Conway, Shivam Dube, Moeen Ali, and Ambati Rayudu before the death overs.

Assessing the run chase, the CSK captain said:

"I think in the middle, we needed a bit more strike rotation. I don't think there was a lot for the spinners. Yes they were experienced spinners and they bowled the right lengths but I felt in that period we had too many dot balls. With the set batter and the new batter going in I don't think it was too difficult. So the ownership has to come from the batter."

CSK are scheduled to take on the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in their next fixture at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Monday, April 17.