Table of Contents
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) once again disappointed their fans with a lacklustre performance in the 37th match of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 against Rajasthan Royals (RR) at Dubai on Monday.
The ‘Yellow Army’ lost their seventh match in the competition and tumbled down to the bottom in the points table.
Despite the below-par performance with the bat and the ball, MS Dhoni’s one-handed catch to remove Sanju Samson for a duck was one of the few bright moments for CSK.
Defending a paltry total of 125/5, Super Kings had Royals under the pump with the early wickets of openers Ben Stokes and Robin Uthappa.
Sanju, who had scored a match-winning half-century against CSK during their first meeting in the competition, failed to impress. In the fifth over of the innings bowled by Deepak Chahar, the Kerala wicket-keeper batsman tried to tickle one ball down to the fine-leg boundary, but Dhoni had some other plans.
The former India captain showed his vintage avatar as he dived to his left, and took a one-handed blinder to remove Sanju.
Here is the video:
https://twitter.com/urmilpatel21/status/1318226440538771456
“We were not really there this season”: Dhoni after the loss
The dismissal of Sanju did put the Royals in a sticky situation, but captain Steve Smith and Jos Buttler managed to get the side over the line with more than two overs left in the game.
Buttler hit an unbeaten 70 while Smith scored 26 not out as the duo put on a match-winning 98-run stand. The victory took Royals to move up to fifth place in the points table.
Meanwhile, Dhoni admitted that in the ongoings season they didn’t perform up to the desired expectations. On giving regular chances to players who failed to show consistency, the Ranchi-lad expressed that too many changes don’t help the side anyway.
“It’s not always supposed to go your way. That’s why what we try is going back to the process and see if the process is wrong or maybe we weren’t able to execute. Result is always a byproduct of the process. What it does is it helps you think in a positive way,” said Dhoni at the post-match presentation.
“You don’t want to chop and change a lot. Because what happens is after three-four-five games you’re not sure of anything. You want to give guys a fair go then if they’re not performing then you switch and go to someone else and give them a run. Insecurity is something you don’t want to prevail in the dressing room. Fair enough, this season we weren’t really there,” he added.
