Matthew Hayden, a CSK veteran, disagrees with MS Dhoni's notion that CSK must be conservative in the power play following their crushing loss to KKR in IPL 2025 at Chepauk on Friday, April 11.
KKR pounded CSK in front of their home crowd to clinch a comfortable 8-wicket victory, keeping Chennai in the bottom half of the points standings.
CSK scored only 31 runs in their powerplay overs, indicating a conservative approach, which Dhoni defended after the loss. Hayden disagreed with the CSK captain's words, believing that they provided KKR an advantage on the day.
Hayden felt that CSK had got into a zone where they were actually leading from the front.
"I genuinely felt like this was a 180-plus wicket. I looked at that surface. It looked like a good surface. It was hard black soil, and you know, you hear MS Dhoni talk there about the powerplay. Simon Katich asked him a question, and his response was, look, we've just got to be conservative. We've got to play the whole 20 overs. I disagree. You know, when you're giving away 30 runs. That's exactly what happened tonight inside the power play. KKR was 60. CSK was 30,” Hayden said on JioHotstar.
"30 is often a multiple of 5 times the advantage that you can afford to give away in an IPL. They're often 4 or 5 runs. KKR's last match that they lost to LSG, they lost by 4 runs, so it's so significant, I believe that CSK gets into that space where they're catching up to the tournament, and they're actually leading from the front," Hayden added.
Hayden believes CSK's roster contains enough talented players. He believes that if CSK continues to be conservative, players such as Shivam Dube and Dhoni will be put under strain in the back end and forced to play catch-up.
The former Australian opener believes that in such circumstances, a team's chances of being caught are considerable.
"They've got good enough players. Being conservative, they're also cutting their sharp men and sharpshooters like Shivam Dube and MS Dhoni himself, who's under so much pressure at the back end and having to play catch-up. In my experience, you're not supposed to catch up. You get caught if you're thinking that way, and that's exactly what unfolded in front of us this evening," said Hayden.
CSK will now travel to Lucknow to face LSG on April 14.
