NEWS
Follow UsChennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni said that Saturday's seven-wicket loss against Rajasthan Royals doesn't take away the brilliance of Ruturaj Gaikwad, whose unbeaten 101 propelled CSK to 189/4 in 20 overs. RR blitzed the target with 15 balls to spare at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi after Yashaswi Jaiswal (50 off 21 balls) and Shivam Dube (64 off 42 balls) scored fifties.
"I think initially it was stopping a bit, which we saw with their wrist spinners. As the innings progressed, it started coming on well, Rutu's was an outstanding knock. When you lose the game, it can get brushed under the carpet but he batted very well to get us up to 190," Dhoni said in the post-match presentation.
Dhoni joked that 250 would've been a good total looking at how Rajasthan were batting.
"It was a bad toss to lose to start off, but I feel the Royals batters batted really well. Around 250 may have been about right on that surface (laughs)," he said.
Having qualified for the play-offs with a win in their previous match against Sunrisers Hyderabad, CSK rested regulars Dwayne Bravo and Deepak Chahar for the game. Their replacements Sam Curran and KM Asif alongside Josh Hazlewood conceded heavily as Dhoni felt it was a night to forget for the table toppers.
"Dwayne and Deepak aren't here, of course I missed them. Both of them are quite experienced. Once they started going after the bowlers, it paid off. We could've used the dimensions of the field better," he said.
"Have to forget this, you can go through it in a tournament like this, learn what we could have done. The same thing can happen in the knockouts too, we've done it well, learning from each and every game," he added.
CSK are well set to finish top of the table with two games left against second-placed Sunrisers Hyderabad and top-four contenders Punjab Kings.