Twitter reactions to MS Dhoni and CSK: Although today MS Dhoni came at his usual No. 7 position, two slots above than the position he batted in CSK’s last outing, the result once again fell in the opposition’s favor as the former CSK skipper, along with Ravindra Jadeja, failed to finish off another chase, with the five-time champions suffering a six-run loss to Rajasthan Royals on Sunday evening in Guwahati.
CSK skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad won the toss and elected to bowl first. Although Khaleel Ahmed dismissed Yashasvi Jaiswal in the first over, RR bowlers looked helpless against the aggressive Nitish Rana. Rana smashed a 21-ball fifty to propel RR’s powerplay score to 79.
The left-hander continued hammering the lacklustre CSK bowling. However, he fell 19 runs short of what would have been his maiden IPL century, departing for 81 off 36 balls, his terrific knock including 10 fours and five sixes.
CSK did well to pull things back from thereon and restrict RR to 182 where at one point it looked the Royals would sail past 200.
Yet, the target of 183 became daunting when CSK got off to a poor start. Jofra Archer bowled a wicket maiden first over that included the wicket of Rachin Ravindra. His spell of 1/13 in 3 overs meant CSK managed only 28 in the first five overs.
Captain Gaikwad held his end while losing partners at the other end. Gaikwad scored 63 off 44, while Rahul Tripathi, Shivam Dube, and Vijay Shankar failed to get going, leaving CSK needing 54 off the last four overs.
In their heydeys, MS Dhoni and Jadeja would have more often aced this kind of chases, or at least bring it closer. But this time, they were kept on a leash as Sandeep Sharma and Maheesh Theekshana bowled two excellent overs, conceding 15 runs off 12 balls.
While Dhoni and Jadeja took 19 runs off Tushar Deshpande in the 19th over, Sandeep still had 20 to defend in the last over, where he dismissed Dhoni on the first legal ball of the over, the legendary CSK skipper walking back with 16 runs off 11 balls and the chase slipping away from his team.
CSK now have lost two games in a row, after winning their opening encounter of the season against Mumbai Indians, where they made the target of 156 look bigger than it was. A scrapping last-over win in a mediocre run-chase, and two failed run-chases: the flaws in CSK’s batting department and line-up are laid bare now right at the start of the season.
Twitter was flooded with “tears of CSK fans”, as claimed by many other franchise fans.
Let’s check out Twitter reactions to MS Dhoni and CSK’s failed run chase against RR:
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