New Delhi, May 21 (IANS) The hapless run of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in IPL 2025 continued when the MS Dhoni suffered a clinical six-wicket defeat at the hands of Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday.

Though they made 187/8 and had run-rate upwards of ten most times, skipper MS Dhoni lamented the loss of one-two extra wickets coming back to hurt them at the end. “If you look at the amount of runs we had put on the board, it was very good, but you got to see the wickets column as it puts pressure on the lower-middle order that you might not bat 20 overs.”

“I think Brevis’ innings was very nice, he was taking chances and I feel run-rate was nice, that’s the phase we want to improve slightly. I felt the run-rate was up but where we lacked was losing 1-2 extra wickets,” said Dhoni in the post-match presentation ceremony.

Though Brevis and Ayush Mhatre made 42 and 43 respectively, apart from leaving many gasping via some breath-taking stroke-play, CSK losing wickets in clumps twice hurt them. Devon Conway and Urvil Patel fell in one power-play over to Yudhvir Singh Charak, while Akash Madhwal squeezed the run-flow at the end, which resulted in Dhoni and Shivam Dube being dismissed in the final over.

“I think you need to look for consistency, which is hard to get when you are looking for a 200 strike-rate. The batters need to back themselves. What is important is to be the same way as your first season for all young batters. You need to get more consistent that’s going to help you to develop as a batsman going forward,” added Dhoni.

Pacer Anshul Kamboj had figures of 1-21 and found some movement to keep RR openers quiet for some time. Dhoni was quite impressed with how Kamboj, who is also selected for India ‘A’ squad on the upcoming tour of England, has taken responsibility upfront.

“He (Kamboj) is someone who doesn’t get swing, but he gets some seam movement, the ball hits you harder than the speed gun suggests, he has taken the responsibility and he is someone who can bowl good yorkers.”

“That’s (powerplay) one area where there’s a hole for us, we don’t want to give away too many runs in the first six overs. He has bowled 3 overs in the powerplay, which I feel is tougher when the ball isn’t moving much and when the batsmen are well set.”

–IANS

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