http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Kerala-c803 – IPL news
Chennai Super Kings skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni feels that an hour-long rain interruption played a crucial role in his team’s embarrassing seven-wicket defeat to Kochi Tuskers Kerala in the 18th game of the Indian Premier League on Monday.
Due to an hour-long delay at Nehru Stadium in Kochi, the game was restricted to 17 overs per innings. Realising the state of affairs at the ground, the Kochi captain Mahela Jayawardene asked Dhoni and his men to bat first. The Super Kings could only manage
to put up a modest total of 131 in the given overs.
With the help of Brendon McCullum’s destructive innings of 47 runs from just 33 balls, the Kochi team achieved the target convincingly with 12 balls remaining, registering their second win in the League.
Extremely disappointed over his team’s humiliating defeat to the Kochi side, the dejected Dhoni termed rain interruption as the decisive factor.
“The interruption didn’t help us at all. We lost three overs which proved to be crucial in the end. We had marked those three overs to set ourselves up for a big score,” Dhoni said.
The skipper explained that with three overs less than the usual 20, the Chennai’s lower-order big hitters did not get the opportunity to show their magic. Dhoni, however, gave full credit to the Kochi bowlers, who bowled fabulously throughout the game.
Heaping praise on McCullum’s match-winning innings, Dhoni further showed his concerns over a not-so-impressive performance from the Chennai bowlers.
“It was the timing of the interruption that became crucial. Badri had just walked in and the big hitters were there in the dressing room. But can’t take any credit away from the Kochi bowlers as they did a good job in restricting us. Also McCullum batted
well and stayed nearly till the end,” the skipper added.
India’s ICC World Cup 2011 winning captain, Dhoni, expressed complete satisfaction over his team’s fielding. However, the wicket-keeper batsman said that the batsmen did not put enough runs on the board, which eventually cost them the game.
With their second defeat in the ongoing tournament, the Chennai Super Kings have slipped down to the fifth spot in the IPL standings.
The Kings are now scheduled to contest the Sachin Tendulkar-led http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mumbai-c820 Indians on Friday, 22 April, 2011.
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