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Chennai
Mahendra Singh Dhoni lost his cool after the dismissal performance of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) batters as CSK suffered a 5-wicket defeat against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Friday. It was CSK’s seventh defeat in nine games in IPL 2025, and their first-ever home defeat to SRH.
Criticising the men behind the bat at the post-match ceremony, Dhoni said, “I think we kept losing wickets and another thing is I felt, in the first innings, the wicket was slightly better, and 155 [154] is not a justifiable score because it wasn’t turning a lot,” Dhoni said at the post-match presentation. “Yes, after the eighth, ninth, [or] tenth over, it became slightly two-paced when it comes to the fast bowlers. But nothing that was out of the ordinary. So, I feel we could have run slightly better and put a few more runs on the board.”
He continued, “Yes, [in the] second innings, there was a bit of help. Our spinners, the quality is there. So, they were bowling in the right areas, and they got a bit of bounce. It was stopping a bit, but yeah, we were short by 15-20 runs.”
Despite the overall disappointment, Dhoni praised the performance of 21-year-old Dewald Brevis who was playing his first game of the season after being picked as an injury replacement for Gurjapneet Singh. He went on to top-score for CSK, smashing four sixes in his 42 from 25 balls. Three of Brevis’ four sixes came in one over off spinner Kamindu Mendis.
“I think he batted really well, and we need something like that in the middle order,” Dhoni said of Brevis. “Where we have slightly struggled is when the spinners come in, that’s the time we need to either do it by batsmanship – pick up your areas where you’re scoring – or try to play the big shot once in your area. So, I feel that’s where we have been lacking.
He continued, “We have not been able to dominate or get runs against the spinners at a good pace in the middle. So that’s one area where we want to improve because middle overs are very crucial – you have to get those extra five, ten or 15 runs, especially if you get off to a good start.”
The win has taken SRH to eighth place on the points table, thus registering three wins and six losses for a total of six points. CSK, on the other hand, sit at the bottom with just two wins from nine games and four points to show.
