Chennai Super Kings captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni registered his highest T20 score in the Indian Premier League 2019 clash against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Sunday at Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Chennai Super Kings captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni registered his highest T20 score in the Indian Premier League 2019 clash against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Sunday at Chinnaswamy Stadium. The wicketkeeper-batsman hammered an unbeaten 84 runs in 48 balls but failed to win the match for his side. In 98 T20Is for India, Dhoni’s highest score is 56. His previous best in IPL was 79 against Kings XI Punjab, which he scored last year.
Needing 26 off the final over to win, Dhoni smashed three sixes and a boundary. In the final ball, CSK needed two runs to win. The right-handed batsman failed to get bat on the slow ball from Umesh Yadav. In an attempt to steal a single and take the match to super-over, Shardul Thakur was run out by a direct throw from keeper Parthiv Patel, thus giving Bangalore a thrilling 1-run win.
After the defeat, the 37-year-old said: “I think it was a good game. We did really well to restrict them to a below-par total, but we needed some good batting at the top. Once you know the opposition attack, you gotta stick to your plans and if you lose too many wickets upfront that puts pressure and the middle order really can’t go after the bowlers from the start. We have to carefully see what are the areas we want to take that risk. It was still difficult at the end. It was slightly spungy (the pitch) and the new batsmen found it difficult. Boundaries were needed and yes we have lost by one run but at the same time we have to see what if there were few dot balls and whether we could have got those extra boundaries or not.”
STATS:
* MS Dhoni unbeaten in unsuccessful run chases (IPL):
63(45)* v MI Kolkata 2013
42(31)* v KXIP Mumbai WS 2014
79(44)* v KXIP Mohali 2018
84(48)* v RCB Bengaluru 2019
* One run wins for RCB:
vs KXIP Mohali 2016
vs CSK Bengaluru 2019
* CSK have lost two consecutive matches for the first time since coming back in IPL 2018
* The win marks the end of a seven successive defeat for RCB against CSK
Needing 26 off the final over to win, Dhoni smashed three sixes and a boundary. In the final ball, CSK needed two runs to win. The right-handed batsman failed to get bat on the slow ball from Umesh Yadav. In an attempt to steal a single and take the match to super-over, Shardul Thakur was run out by a direct throw from keeper Parthiv Patel, thus giving Bangalore a thrilling 1-run win.
After the defeat, the 37-year-old said: “I think it was a good game. We did really well to restrict them to a below-par total, but we needed some good batting at the top. Once you know the opposition attack, you gotta stick to your plans and if you lose too many wickets upfront that puts pressure and the middle order really can’t go after the bowlers from the start. We have to carefully see what are the areas we want to take that risk. It was still difficult at the end. It was slightly spungy (the pitch) and the new batsmen found it difficult. Boundaries were needed and yes we have lost by one run but at the same time we have to see what if there were few dot balls and whether we could have got those extra boundaries or not.”
STATS:
* MS Dhoni unbeaten in unsuccessful run chases (IPL):
63(45)* v MI Kolkata 2013
42(31)* v KXIP Mumbai WS 2014
79(44)* v KXIP Mohali 2018
84(48)* v RCB Bengaluru 2019
* One run wins for RCB:
vs KXIP Mohali 2016
vs CSK Bengaluru 2019
* CSK have lost two consecutive matches for the first time since coming back in IPL 2018
* The win marks the end of a seven successive defeat for RCB against CSK