Going right down to the last second, Match 52 of the current Indian Premier League (IPL 2025) was a complete humdinger. Notably, on Saturday, May 3, the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) played the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at Bengaluru’s famed M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Before Shaik Rasheed was removed with the score at 51, CSK had a scorching start after being given a difficult aim of 214 runs. Following that, the Ayush Mhatre show almost missed out on a well-earned century. All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja pitched in at one end, but CSK continued to lose wickets at regular intervals. As a result, they lost the match by just two runs in the closing stages of the game after failing to cross the finish line.
But the gesture made by CSK captain MS Dhoni became the talk of the town after the game. He thought back on his team’s poor performance in the 2025 Indian Premier League. Surprisingly, instead of criticising the other players for the defeat, he accepted responsibility. Dhoni claimed that by using the bat more and turning singles or dot balls into boundaries, he might have made the difference. This might therefore have reduced the team’s pressure in the run chase.
Romario Shepherd, whose vicious hitting utterly destroyed CSK’s bowling, was also praised by him.
“I’ll take the blame because I felt like I should have relaxed the pressure and converted a few more shots. Shepherd was outstanding in the closing overs; he could hit anything we bowled for the most runs,” Dhoni remarked during the post-match press conference.
In addition, he emphasised the significance of perfectly executing yorkers to make batters’ lives more difficult, particularly under duress. The pacer has enough variations to limit the opposition, he said, using Matheesha Pathirana as an example. But if he can’t hit the yorkers against a batter who is well-set, he’ll probably try for huge runs.
Dhoni highlights bowling challenges and batting lessons
MS Dhoni also said that his batters lack practice in playing unorthodox shots like the paddle sweep. Though he felt Ravindra Jadeja does play it at times, other batters still need to catch up. He signed off by saying that the team needs to learn from these experiences to grow into a stronger unit.
“We need to practise more yorkers. More often than not, when the batters start to connect, you have to rely on the yorkers. If you cannot nail the yorker, the low full toss is the next best option. Someone like Pathirana—he has the pace, he can bowl the bouncer as well—and if he misses the yorker, the batter has a chance to hit it,” the CSK skipper continued.
“Not all batters are comfortable playing that (the paddle) shot. It’s something the batters need to practise in the modern era. But most of our batters are not comfortable playing it. Jadeja plays that shot, but he was backing his shots down the ground more. Batting was an area where we were slightly behind. But today, as a department, I feel the batting did very well,” Dhoni concluded.
India
