The 12th edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) has been going great for Chennai Super Kings. They had the highest points earlier to qualify for the playoffs. However, they lost the first qualifier game to Mumbai Indians in their own backyard; where they are hard to beat. Moreover, Mumbai earlier also beat them on their backyard as well. Though captain MS Dhoni was not pleased with the defeat, their second-placed finish will give them another chance to qualify for the final.

“It isn’t good to lose games at such times, but it is good that we finished in the top two. Rather than going over the wicket (straight to the finals), we now need to go round the wicket (to qualifier 2), that means the journey takes a longer time. We finished in the top-two luckily and that gives us a second chance,” Dhoni said after the completion of the match.

“I think we were a bit unlucky at times with the bowling, some balls dropped right in the middle and a few catches were dropped. We perhaps had to bowl slightly away from the batsmen, could have bowled with more variations. But we didn’t have runs on the board, so every boundary conceded in a 130 defense was bad,” Dhoni added.

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Dhoni scored 37 off 29 with 3 sixes. He was expected to score more but he failed to do it against Mumbai as Jasprit Bumrah bowled two exceptionally good overs and restricted the opponent.

“Things really didn’t go our way, especially out batting. At home, we had to assess the conditions quickly, we have played 6 to 7 games on this pitch and should have read the pitch better, that’s the home advantage. I think the batting needs to get better. These are the best batsmen we have got, it looks like we are batting well, but at times they play shots that shouldn’t be played,” Dhoni further said.

Chennai Super Kings will now play against the winner of the second qualifier between Delhi Capitals and Sunrisers Hyderabad.”Hopefully, we will do well in the next game,” Dhoni expressed. The final will be played on May 12 in Hyderabad.