Chennai Super Kings’ captain MS Dhoni didn’t hold back after another dismal performance by his side, as he openly blamed the team’s batting failures for their defeat against Sunrisers Hyderabad in their crucial Indian Premier League 2025 encounter on Friday.
In an effort to turn their campaign around, CSK made a few changes to their playing XI, bringing in Dewald Brevis and Deepak Hooda while dropping Rachin Ravindra. However, the changes didn’t translate into success, as CSK’s innings got off to the worst possible start with Shaik Rasheed falling on the very first ball of the match.
Speaking after the game, Ms Dhoni was forthright in his criticism, stressing that the batters had failed yet again to give the team a strong start. “We kept losing wickets, and in the first innings the wicket was slightly better and 155 is not a justifiable score, because it wasn’t turning a lot. Yes, after the 8-10th over, it became slightly two-paced when it comes to the fast bowlers, but nothing that was out of the ordinary, I feel we could have put few more runs on the board. Yes, second innings there was a bit of help, our spinners the quality was there and they bowled in the right areas and it was stopping a bit but we were short by 15-20 runs,” Dhoni said, clearly unimpressed with the team’s effort.
Though CSK’s innings found a brief glimmer of hope through Dewald Brevis, who impressed with a lively 42 off 25 balls on debut, there was little support from the rest of the batting line-up. Reflecting on Brevis’ innings, Dhoni said, “I think he (Brevis) batted really well and we need something like that in the middle order where we have slightly struggled when the spinners come in, that’s a time we need to either you do it by batsmanship, where you pick up your areas or try to play the big shot in your area, I feel that’s where we have been lacking and not been really able to dominate or get runs against spinners at good pace in the middle.”
Despite a valiant fightback from CSK’s spinners in the second innings, the failure to post a competitive total once again cost them dearly. Dhoni made it clear that unless the batters step up and post stronger scores, the team will continue to struggle this season. His frank assessment leaves little doubt about where he believes the problems lie as CSK battles to keep their playoff hopes alive.
