It was a tough outing for both Chennai Super Kings and their new captain MS Dhoni after the home side was thrashed by Kolkata Knight Riders by eight wickets with 59 balls to spare in the Indian Premier League 2025 match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Friday.
“It has been quite a few nights that has not gone our way. The challenge has been there and we have to accept the challenge,” admitted Dhoni who has been made the captain of CSK after Ruturaj Gaikwad was ruled out of IPL 2025 due to a hairline fracture in his elbow.
After being invited to bat, Chennai scored their lowest total at Chepauk and could only manage 103/9 in 20 overs. “Today I felt we did not have enough runs on the board. It has been the case over there, 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,” said Dhoni after the match.
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CSK failed to build any big partnerships throughout the game. Their highest stand was 43 runs for the third wicket between Vijay Shankar and Rahul Tripathi while the second-highest was 24 for the last wicket.
“We never got any partnerships and bit more partnerships, application and we would be fine. (on getting just 31 in the powerplay) 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,” added Dhoni.
After starting with Tripathi and Rachin Ravindra, the management paired the latter with his New Zealand teammate Devon Conway. But combined they all have failed to give a good start to Chennai this season. “They 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 is the joint most successful captain in IPL with five trophies under his belt alongside Rohit Sharma, who also won five IPL titles as a captain of Mumbai Indians.
After beating Mumbai Indians by four wickets in their first game of the season, Chennai slumped to their fifth consecutive loss in IPL 2025. With just two points from six matches and a negative 1.554 NRR, they sit second from the bottom just ahead of last-placed Sunrisers Hyderabad.
