MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings started their 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) with a seven-wicket loss to Delhi Capitals at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai on Saturday. Despite posting a total of 188 runs for 7 from their allotted 20 overs, CSK failed to restrict Delhi Capitals’ openers – Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw as they have hammered blistering fifties to take the team home with eight balls to spare.

After Shaw and Dhawan’s onslaught, a little cameo from Marcus Stoinis and Rishabh Pant helped Delhi Capitals win in the 19th over. After the match, CSK skipper MS Dhoni was critical of his bowlers’ execution during the game, saying they bowled too many boundary balls that allowed the opposition to score freely.

“When it comes to our bowling, we could’ve done slightly better. If the batters are hitting you over your field and whatever plans you’ve set. I feel that’s fair enough but there were quite a few boundary deliveries where you are not really looking to bowl. The execution was not very nice,” Dhoni said at the post-match presentation.

Deepak Chahar, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Shardul Thakur all were expensive. Only Dwayne Bravo could manage to keep things tight, giving away just 28 runs from his quota of four overs as well. However, MS Dhoni also backed his bowlers to do well in the upcoming games. However, he also opened up on the dew factor which troubled them during the match and the captain said that at least 200 runs on the board is needed to stay in the game.

“I feel the bowlers would’ve learned and they’ll prepare much better for the coming games. 7.30 start means opposition will have less amount of dew and we have to score those 15-20 runs extra. After that you need to get early wickets also. Well, if we keep consistently getting dew, 200 is something all teams have in mind,” Dhoni concluded.