A disappointed Chennai Super Kings skipper MS Dhoni on Friday blamed his batters for the heavy defeat against Kolkata Knight Riders and urged them to avoid desperation and instead focus on better application to arrest the slide in the upcoming IPL matches. CSK were restricted to 103 for nine, as KKR chased down the target in just 10.1 overs, handing the five-time champions their biggest defeat in IPL history in terms of balls remaining.

“It has been quite a few nights that has not gone our way. The challenge has been there, we have to accept the challenge. Today I felt we did not have enough runs on the board,” Dhoni said after the match.

“It has been the case over here (Chepauk), when we bowled in the 2nd innings it stopped a bit, today it did in the first innings. When you lose too many wickets, there is pressure and with quality spinners it is difficult.” It was yet another dismal batting performance by the five-time champions, who were completely dismantled by a clinical KKR side, as CSK slumped to their fifth straight loss of the season.

CSK could manage just 31 runs for 2 wickets in the powerplay.

“We never got any partnerships and bit more partnerships, application and we would be fine,” Dhoni said.

“What is important is to see the conditions, couple of games we have done decently well, back your strengths and play the shots you can play. Not match to someone’s else play.

“Our openers are good openers, play authentic cricket shots, they don’t slog or look to hit across the line. It is important not to get desperate seeing the scorecard. If we start looking for 60 with our lineup (in powerplay) it will be very difficult for us.

“Get partnerships going, maybe capitalise in the middle and later overs and if we lose wickets, the middle order has to do their job differently. And the slog will be delayed for quite a while,” he said.

KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane, a former CSK player, hinted that knowledge about the conditions helped his side. He also lauded his team for executing their plans.

“We had our plans. I have played here last two years, so has Moeen. DJ knows the conditions as well. The wicket is a bit sticky, the ball stops on you a bit. Credit goes to the spinners, our plans worked well today,” he said.

“Long way to go in the tournament, don’t want to share too much of those plans. “I thought the wicket would play together, it looked like a 170 type of wicket. But can’t take any credit away from the bowlers.” Rahane picked the spinners for special praise after they accounted for six of the nine CSK wickets.

“Moeen (Ali) played well – never easy to play just one game and then miss out, and then come back in. So did Sunny (Sunil Narine) and Varun (Chakravarthy). Sunny went for runs in the last game, but came back strong. So did Vaibhav (Arora) and Harshit (Rana).

“All in all a good bowling performance.” 

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