Chennai Super Kings have lost their third game of the ongoing IPL season to Punjab Kings by 54 runs while this is the first time in the history of IPL that the franchise has lost their first three games consecutively.
Chennai Super Kings submitted to their third defeat of IPL 2022 when they lost to Punjab Kings by 54 runs. While chasing a target of 181 runs to win the match, CSK couldn’t start the innings very well and lost their wickets very early but it was only a partnership between Shivam Dube and MS Dhoni that helped the team get past the 100-run mark as CSK were bowled out for 126.
Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar observe that CSK were frozen in their chase when Dube and Dhoni got together as the former CSK captain was not able to carry the strike along.
“With MSD, what you see is that even if he doesn’t start hitting the big ones, he is moving the strike along, getting those ones and twos. He wasn’t quite able to do that this time around. That’s where CSK got stuck just that little bit,”
Gavaskar told Star Sports as reported by India Today.
“If they had a situation where Shivam Dube was hitting the ball so well, they needed to get a move on along with him. That didn’t quite happen. Look at those some of those dot balls that he played, yes, later on, he made up with the boundaries. When you are looking to score 20 runs an over, that’s tough for the best of players, it’s not easy,”
he added.
This is the first time in the history of IPL that CSK has lost their first three games consecutively while the franchise will have to bring their campaign back on track soon, else qualifying for the play-offs will become a big challenge.
Dhoni gave up captaincy to Jadeja before the start of this IPL season, a move that was seen as an effort on the part of the legendary skipper to prepare Jadeja as a future leader.
CSK are looking to win their fifth title this season, which will bring them on level joining with Mumbai Indians.
In the past IPL editions, CSK has failed to qualify for the playoffs only once, when they dropped out in 2020.