- Thursday, May 01, 2025
Chennai have been criticized for their sluggish batting as they often failed to capitalize on the powerplay and death overs
By: India Weekly
AFTER a lackluster outing, Indian Premier League powerhouse Chennai Super Kings have become the first team to be eliminated from the playoff race this season.
The five-time champions has been pushed to the bottom of the 10-team points table, losing eighth out of 10 matches.
On Wednesday, it lost to Punjab Kings by four wickets, after suffering a batting collapse.
At 172-4 in the 18th over, Chennai looked set for a 200-plus score, but they got all out for 190 with four balls left.
Punjab spinner Yuzvendra Chahal claimed four wickets in five balls, including a hat-trick.
“It was the first time when we had put enough runs on the board, but was it a par score? I feel (we were) slightly short,” Chennai captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said afterwards.
“Not to forget when it’s a high-scoring game, we didn’t play the last four deliveries and in the second last over, we got four batsmen out.”
“In close games, seven (dot) deliveries mean a lot,” he said.
Chennai have been criticized for their sluggish batting as they often failed to capitalize on the powerplay and death overs.
Their run rate of 8.23 is the lowest among all teams and in the list of 27 team totals of 200 or more this season, Chennai feature only once.
They had to change their misfiring top order, including the New Zealand duo of Rachin Ravindra and Devon Conway, while Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja and Rahul Tripathi also failed to fire in the middle order.
This often denied the team any platform for a late acceleration.
An ageing Dhoni was put in charge after a shoulder injury cut short skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad’s season.
