IPL 2020: Batting legend Brian Lara opens up on MS Dhoni’s performance in CSK

The Chennai Super Kings team has been struggling to find a way in the sun as they failed yet again to chase down the target of 168 set by Kolkata Knight Riders at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium on Wednesday. Despite losing Faf du Plessis early on in the second innings, the team managed to put up a good show until the end of the 10th over. Subsequent losses of wickets, especially opener Shane Watson’s, proved costly in the end as CSK failed to maintain a steady run rate.

The team fell 10 runs short of the target and faced their fourth defeat this season. During a post-match analysis show on Star Sports, legendary batsman Brian Lara mentioned that things are not going right for Dhoni and added that he found it strange that Dhoni was unable to finish the matches. “It’s a bit puzzling. You feel that he has created that position where he can be flexible with himself but I think he needs to maybe look at some other players. They have played a couple of games where Dwayne Bravo, an all-rounder, hasn’t had an opportunity to bat. Scoring 58 runs in 10 overs but only losing 10 wickets, something is wrong. He is a great finisher, no doubt about that. But things are not going right for him and I believe, some of the other players, look at Jadeja how he batted today, he came in when their chances were very slim. So, something he will have to work on, have a steadier stuff. They were cruising after 10 overs. You got 90-odd on board. It was unbelievable,” Lara said.

Meanwhile, Dhoni mentioned during the post-match presentation that the batsmen in the team had let the bowlers down last night. “In the middle overs, there was a phase when they bowled two-three good overs. Then we lost two-three wickets in a row. If our batting was different during that period, the result would have been different. Initially we gave away a few too many with the new ball. Karn (Sharma) did really well. The bowlers did well to bring them down to 160-odd. As a team, we should have achieved the target but the batsmen let the bowlers down,” Dhoni conceded.