Steyn’s desperate ‘Dhoni’ plea goes viral as CSK captain plays only 3 balls | Cricket

Chennai Super Kings faced a hiccup in the race for playoffs on Sunday night, as they faced a six-wicket loss to Kolkata Knight Riders in Chennai. After being restricted to 144/6 in 20 overs, the CSK bowlers were denied a dramatic win by the duo of Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh, who scored half-centuries to deliver a much-needed win for the Knight Riders. While CSK remain second with 15 points on the table, the KKR are now sixth and remain alive in the race for a playoff berth.

The CSK endured a poor start that hampered their entire innings; the side was left reeling at 72/5 after the end of 11th over and could only reach a respectable score due to a partnership between Shivam Dube (48*) and Ravindra Jadeja (20). The latter, however, was severely criticised for failing to increase the run rate towards the closing overs of the game, and justifiably, the fans began to lose patience as the innings progressed.

Another major reason for their anger was that Jadeja’s slow knock prevented CSK captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni from arriving at the crease early; while Dhoni did reserve himself for the final overs throughout the tournament, he boasted of a strike rate above 200 prior to the innings on Sunday night. Even former South Africa star Dale Steyn lost patience at one point, and took to Twitter to express his impatience at Jadeja’s knock.

Steyn wrote, ‘Let Dhoni bat’ minutes before Jadeja was dismissed with two deliveries remaining in the CSK innings. Dhoni, however, could only score an unbeaten 2.

Earlier, Rana and Rinku, both left-handers, showed necessary skills and patience on a tacky pitch to negate the impact of CSK spinners after the home team had posted a moderate 144 for six in 20 overs.

The match-winning partnership between Rana and Rinku ended when the latter was run out by a direct hit from Moeen Ali.