Chennai Super Kings’ hot and cold form in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) continues as they went down against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Dubai. Chasing 170 runs, they fell short of 37 runs. MS Dhoni & Co will have a lot of catch-ups to do to keep their hopes alive for IPL 2020.

Chasing a moderate total, Chenna Super Kings didn’t look in the mojo as they failed to secure big overs. Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis went home early and Ambati Rayudu and N Jagadeeshan struggled to play the big shots. Chennai didn’t manage to hit a six until the 16th over when MS Dhoni hit one off Yuzvendra Chahal.

Chennai Super Kings continue to drop points

But, the leg-spinner bounced back immediately dismissing Dhoni and almost pocketing the game. Royal Challengers Bangalore’s bowling has finally started to reap dividends and Virat Kohli will hope to keep up the good job. Chris Morris hitting the stride in his first game will be crucial as they prepare to play three more games in the next seven days.

Earlier in the day, at one stage the Royal Challengers Bangalore innings seemed to be going nowhere but Virat Kohli played a captain’s knock to set up a challenging total. Aaron Finch went early and Devdutt Padikkal looked scratchy in his stay.

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Virat Kohli came out in the third over and looked fluent – the best he has looked so far in IPL 2020. Even though he added 50+ with Padikkal, Kohli lost a few of his partners in quick succession in that middle period. But the Bangalore skipper wanted to stay till the end and with the support of Shivam Dube, he got RCB to the 170-mark.

Virat Kohli remained unbeaten on 90 runs from 52 balls with four boundaries and sixes each. The total, in the end, proved to be enough to win piling up more worries for MS Dhoni.

Batting has been the weak link for us – MS Dhoni

Speaking at the post-match presentation ceremony, MS Dhoni rued poor effort with the bat for their consecutive defeats. Dhoni also urged the top-order batters to take more onus and don’t leave it till the end where the pressure mounts.

“Batting has been a bit of a worry and today also it was evident,” MS Dhoni said. “We need to do something about it. We can’t keep turning up and it is almost the same thing that is happening maybe the individuals are different but I think we are better off playing the other way round – play the big shots and even if you get out it is fine because we can’t leave too many after the 15th or 16th over that just puts too much pressure on the lower order batsmen,” he added.

Speaking further, MS Dhoni said that their bowling has been good except for the last couple of overs. In the death, Virat Kohli and Shivam Dube took the bowlers to cleaners which made the difference in the end.

“I think the last 4 overs when we were bowling (didn’t go to plan), before that the bowlers had done a good job, we needed to close in nicely,” he signed off.