Don’t make me run a lot: Dhoni has told his teammates

PTI, May 11, 2023, 8:23 AM IST

Chennai Super Kings skipper MS Dhoni on Wednesday said that his job this IPL season is to come down the order and provide the final flourish with the bat.

The former India skipper, who is believed to be playing his last season of IPL, has been batting down the order at times as low as No. 8, facing a few balls with an aim to hit a few maximums like he did on Wednesday.

Against Delhi Capitals too he played a quick cameo at the end , blazing away to 20 off nine balls to inflate CSK’s total. However, the World Cup-winning skipper was seen limping and struggled to run between the wickets.

”This is what my job is, I have told them this is what I am supposed to do, don’t make me run a lot and it has been working. This is what I need to do, happy to contribute,” Dhoni said at the presentation ceremony after the 27-run win.

Despite an underwhelming performance with the bat, CSK managed a comfortable win against the Capitals.

The CSK top three have done the bulk of the scoring this season with Shivam Dube ”I felt 166-170 was a good score. But as a batting unit, we can do better. The good thing is Moeen (Ali) and Jaddu (Jadeja) got a chance to bat. ”As we get closer to the last phase of the tournament, it’s important that everybody has a few deliveries under their belt,” Dhoni said at the post match conference.

Talking about the match, Dhoni said ”It turned a lot in the second half. We know that our spinners use a lot more seam than some of the other bowlers. We thought it’ll slow down. ”We didn’t know what’s a good score. That’s why I wanted the bowlers to bowl their best deliveries but not look for wickets every delivery. That’s when you start not bowling well and bowl those loose deliveries.” We threw away wickets: Warner ==================== After an incredible batting performance in the win against Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Capitals batting crumbled once again. They lost wickets in clumps, something that has plagued the Capitals all season. ”Back to losing three wickets. We lost a wicket in the first over. Our opening combination is crucial. We lost a wicket to a run-out. We threw wickets away. Put too much on pressure on ourselves. Was a gettable total.

Warner felt his side could have utilised their batting powerplay better. ”To sum it up, we needed a better first six. We couldn’t rotate strike. We needed to try different things but we couldn’t,” Warner said.