IPL 7: Dhoni's tactical errors may have caused Chennai Super Kings debacle

Hyderabad:
Minor decisions can have big impacts in T20 cricket and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni made some crucial errors in the eliminator game against Kings XI Punjab, which led to CSK’s defeat by 24 runs. A few pointers to what Dhoni did wrong.

Should have batted up the order
Dhoni’s worst tactical decision was to keep himself lower down the batting order in the chase while sending in David Hussey and Ravindra Jadeja ahead of him. He team needed 87 off 44 balls when he came in but there was neither support in the middle nor any strength left in the bench.

After Suresh Raina’s superb innings, the stage was set for Dhoni to guide the team to victory, but he failed to promote himself up the order as he had done famously in the World Cup final in 2011 at the same venue (Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium).

Aakash Chopra, former Indian opener, says, “While Dhoni has all the reason to be upset with his middle-order, nothing stopped him from moving up. Had Dhoni come up the order, he could have easily built on the momentum set by Raina.”

CSK bowlers lacked venom
CSK was not aggressive enough against Virender Sehwag with the new ball. The bowlers and their captain seemed to decide too early that containment was the only strategy on this splendid batting pitch.

In allowing the free striker to settle in nicely without pressure, CSK was always chasing the leather. T.A. Sekar, former India pacer says, “CSK pacers tried their best but one can’t really do much when Sehwag is in that kind of form.

The only thing, which I feel CSK missed, was a real pacer who could bowl at 145 kmph. Maybe a well-targeted bouncer to push him on to the backfoot could have worked.” The strategic yorker decision had boomeranged — tactically the worst decision was to aim only for yorkers midway through the innings.

By bowling the full tosses from obviously failed yorkers, CSK was not giving themselves the chance to take wickets and control the run flow in the end overs. The bowlers seemed to lose their nerve and were afraid to pitch anything on the surface.

Annoyed with the foreigners?
The chase equation at 127 off 83 balls with eight wickets in hand was gettable even with normal T20 batting. But CSK lost four wickets for 33 runs between the 12th and 17th overs and messed up the finish, leaving Dhoni to do far too much.

The four foreign players in the line-up — Dwayne Smith, Faf du Plesis, Brendon McCullum and David Hussey — scored only 19 runs in 31 balls. Dhoni said: “I think definitely it was something we could have achieved, the reason being Suresh (and) the way he batted, I think in the middle overs there was some very irresponsible cricket by some of the most experienced international cricketers; in a game like this when the stakes are high, you can”t really commit mistakes.”