Chennai Super Kings lost their second game of IPL 2020 against the Rajasthan Royals by 16 runs in Sharjah. Chasing 217 to win, CSK reached 200 as MS Dhoni was unbeaten on 29 off 17 balls coming into bat at number seven. Meanwhile, in the post-match press conference, coach Stephen Fleming explained the reason of sending Dhoni in at number 7.
Fleming said, it’s still early days in the tournament and that CSK is trying to use their resource smartly. However, all of this happened at the cost of the team losing a match very early in the season.
Stephen Fleming Explains Why MS Dhoni Batted at No.7
“MS is a specialist towards the end of the innings, always has been. Curran was there trying to hit and keep us in the game at that point when we were falling behind. He’s got good hitting power like we saw. Rituraj…it was his first game and we wanted to get him into the game into the order. We wanted to be aggressive, we’ve got a long batting order and we’re just trying to use our resources smartly” Fleming was quoted saying.
Also Read: MS Dhoni Reveals Why He Batted Deep Down In The Order
Meanwhile, the likes of Sam Curran, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Kedar Jadhav came into bat before MS Dhoni in the contest. Speaking after the match, the CSK skipper shared his thoughts on batting lower down the order.
“I haven’t batted for a long time; 14-day quarantine doesn’t help,” he said after the game. “Also wanted to try different things, give opportunities to Sam. Have the opportunity to try different things. If it doesn’t work, you can always go back to your strengths” said Dhoni.
Meanwhile, Rajasthan Royals had the strongest possible start to their campaign after beating a side like CSK, against whom they have a bad record in the past. They headed into the match without their key players Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes, but still ended up winning the contest This will give them a huge boost going forward in the season.
Also read: Sakshi Dhoni Slams Umpiring Standards in IPL After Another Blunder During CSK vs RR
