New Delhi: MS Dhoni was surprised when he was named the player of the match in Chennai Super Kings’ five-wicket win over Lucknow Super Giants in IPL 2025.
The keeper-batter was unbeaten on 26 off 11 balls with four boundaries and a six as CSK chased down their target of 167 with three balls remaining.
Staying unbeaten with Dhoni was Shivam Dube struck who made 43 in 37 deliveries while opener Rachin Ravindra made 37 in 22 balls. It was CSK’s first win after five straight losses.
Despite their second win in seven matches, the five-time champions remained at the bottom of the 10-team standings with four points. Dhoni said that they still need to improve as a batting unit though he praised debutant Shaik Rasheed, who impressed with a 19-ball 27.
“As a batting unit, we can do better. Roles and responsibilities – that’s what we talk about. If you get off to a good start, and you’re someone who can play through the innings, then why not,” he said after the match.
“I think he batted really well today. He has been with us for quite a few years (Shaik Rasheed). This year he has been batting really well in the nets against both pacers and spinners. It’s just the start. He has the capability to dominate with authentic shots. Even today I was like – “why are they giving me the award?”
Dhoni was glad they could finally end their losing streak. He said winning a close match such as the one at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow on Monday would give them confidence going forward in the tournament.
“It’s good to win a game. When you play a tournament like this, you want to win games. Unfortunately the (earlier) matches didn’t go our way for whatever reasons. There can be lots of reasons. It’s good to have a win on our side. Gives confidence to the whole team and helps us improve in areas we want to improve,” the former India skipper said.
“We all knew that when it doesn’t come your way in cricket, God makes it very tough, and it was a tough game. If you see the powerplay, whether it was the combination or the conditions, we were struggling with the ball. And then we weren’t able to get the start we wanted as a batting unit. Also the fall of wickets. We keep losing wickets at the wrong time to some extent.
Dhoni put forward nature of wickets as a reason for their limp batting so far in the tournament and said he expects them to improve with matches.
“One of the reasons could be that the Chennai wicket is slightly on the slower side. When we have played away from home, the batting unit has done slightly better. Maybe we need to play on wickets that are slightly better so that it’ll give the batters confidence to play their shots. You don’t want to play timid cricket.”
MS Dhoni was unbeaten on 26 off 11 balls with four boundaries and a six as CSK chased down their target of 167 with three balls remaining against LSG. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
