Lucknow: In the match played against Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Chepauk, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) had to face a crushing defeat by 7 wickets. With this, the path to the playoffs seems to be becoming more difficult for Chennai, but at the moment they still have a chance. After this defeat, former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan has held three players responsible for Chennai's defeat, which includes Ajinkya Rahane, Ruturaj Gaikwad and MS Dhoni.
Chennai's batting proved to be a flop in this match and they could score only 162 runs in the stipulated 20 overs. CSK's batting failed in a match when they did not have fast bowlers Mathisha Pathirana and Tushar Deshpande available. Although Gaikwad scored the required runs but his strike rate was low, due to which Chennai could not score a big score. In such a situation, Pathan has given a big statement while talking on Star Sports, holding these players responsible.
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He said, “Ajinkya Rahane got the start in this match but he missed making a big score. Rahane plays spinners better but in this match Harpreet Brar went ahead of him and got him out. Rituraj scored 62 runs but there was an issue of strike rate with him. He needed to play with a better strike rate than this. Apart from this, even though MS Dhoni is in excellent form this season, he was not able to time the ball properly in this match.
Let us tell you that in this match, Gaikwad faced 48 balls and played an inning of 62 runs with the help of 5 fours and 2 sixes. During this period his strike rate was 129.17. Pathan has raised questions on this attitude of his. On the other hand, Dhoni played a total of 11 balls and could score only 14 runs. During this he hit one four and one six. Due to the slow innings of these players, Chennai failed to score a big score and they had to face defeat in the end.
Punjab defeated Chennai by 7 wickets
If we talk about the match, in this match Punjab had won the toss and decided to bowl first and after this, their bowlers did an excellent job and restricted CSK to 162 runs. Star spinners Harpreet Brar and Rahul Chahar had pushed Chennai on the backfoot by taking 2-2 wickets. Chasing the target of 163 runs, the PBKS team achieved it in 17.5 overs at the loss of 3 wickets and won the match by 7 wickets.
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