MS Dhoni's batting position has always been a talking point and yet again the matter became the central point of all discussions after Chennai Super Kings (CSK) suffered a narrow 16-run defeat against Rajasthan Royals (RR) in their second game in the ongoing IPL 2020 in Sharjah.
The CSK captain demoted himself down the order and came out to bat at no.7 when the three-time IPL champions were chasing a mammoth total of 217 runs against the RR. He then scored 9 off 12 balls when the required rate was above 16, though he hit three sixes in the final over with the team needing 38 runs.
Eventually, CSK lost the game to RR by 16 runs, and Dhoni was slammed for coming so lower down the order in such a big chase.
It has grabbed a lot of headlines after CSK lost the game but the head coach Stephen Fleming defended Dhoni, saying the fans will have to wait for some time to see the captain cool at his best in the ongoing IPL 2020 since he hasn’t played any cricket since last World Cup 2019.
Fleming said at the post-match press conference after the match: “We have this question every year. He was in the 14th over, which is pretty much optimal time, and sort of batted accordingly. He is coming back from not playing a huge amount of cricket.”
He further added, “So, the expectation to see him at his best is going to take some time. But you see him towards the end, he was very good. Faf du Plessis carried the form, so we weren't too far away. It wasn't the batting that was the worry, to be honest.”
Defending Dhoni’s decision to promote young batsmen like Sam Curran and Rituraj Gaikwad to use the resources “smartly”, the CSK coach said: “MS is a specialist towards the end of the innings, always has been. Curran was there trying to hit and keep us in the game at that point when we were falling behind. He's got good hitting power as we saw.”
Fleming further added, “Rituraj... it was his first game and we wanted to get him into the game into the order. We wanted to be aggressive, we've got a long batting order and we're just trying to use our resources smartly.”
Meanwhile, Fleming lamented CSK didn't adjust to the situation and conditions quickly enough in Sharjah that cost them the game against the Royals.
He signed off by saying, “Their (RR) hitting was very good in the 8 overs they faced. It was a good surface (to bat) and we were slow on adjusting. We did not adjust quickly. There was intent to adjust but the execution was poor. So it was a dangerous time and we had to just hang in there and try. We came close to pulling back to a manageable score but that last overtook us out of reach.”
(With PTI Inputs)
