Matthew Hayden has criticised MS Dhoni for his remarks after Chennai Super Kings (CSK) lost to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by eight wickets, suffering their heaviest ever defeat in terms of balls remaining. Dhoni had vouched for a conservative approach after his side was restricted to 103/9 by KKR at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. However, Dhoni’s remarks did not sit well with his former CSK teammate Hayden, who suggested that conservative approach towards the powerplay is something that he would absolutely disagree with.

“I genuinely felt like this was a 180-plus wicket. I looked at that surface. It looked like a good surface. It was hard black soil and you know, you hear MS Dhoni talk there about the powerplay. Simon Katich asked him a question and his response was, look, we’ve just got to be conservative. We’ve got to play the whole 20 overs. I disagree. You know, when you’re giving away 30 runs,” Hayden said while speaking on JioHotstar.

Hayden feels the conservative approach at the start is putting extra pressure on middle order batters, including Dhoni, who end up playing the catch up game.

“They’ve got good enough players. Being conservative, they’re also cutting their sharp men and sharpshooters like Shivam Dube and MS Dhoni himself, who’s under so much pressure at the back end and having to play catch-up,” Hayden said.

After the match, Dhoni also claimed that it difficult for his top order batters to score 60 odd runs in the powerplay.

“We have done a couple of games decently well, so 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, 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,” Dhoni said.

(With ANI Inputs)