IPL 2020: Batsmen Let the Bowlers Down, CSK Lost the Game in the Middle Overs - MS Dhoni

MS Dhoni said Chennai Super Kings' batsmen let their bowlers down following their 10-run loss to Kolkata Knight Riders in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday. Chasing 168, CSK seemed on course at multiple stages but choked towards the end to fall short.

The CSK captain said their middle overs batting, where they lost momentum in 2-3 overs, cost them the game.

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"In the middle overs there was a phase where they bowled a couple of good overs, and then we lost 2-3 wickets quickly. If we batted better, and didn't lose 2-3 wickets in a row the result would have been different," he said in the post match presentation.

CSK Choke in Chase as KKR Return to Winning Ways

"We gave away too many with the new ball, we should've been careful in the first 5-6 overs. Karn (Sharma) was really good with the ball, and I think we did well in general with the ball to keep them to 160. But the batsmen let the bowlers down today."

Dhoni said CSK's middle order batsmen should find ways to find the boundaries even when the bowling is good.

"Rotation of strike was important, but I think there were hardly any boundaries in the final few overs except the last over. 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."

While Dhoni himself struggled for a 12-ball 11 before falling to Varun Chakravarthy, Kedar Jadhav made 7 off 12 while Ravindra Jadeja was unbeaten on 21 off 8, finding the boundary a few times in the last over.

• ipl 2020
• Kedar Jadhav
• MS Dhoni
• Ravindra Jadeja
• Sunil Narine
• Varun Chakravarthy