Chennai Super Kings Win Big in CLT20 But Mahendra Singh Dhoni Not Amused

Chennai Super Kings scored their biggest Champions League Twenty20 win in terms of runs on Indian soil on Monday night against South African team Dolphins but skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni saw the 'negatives' in the 54-run win at Bangalore's Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Chennai Super Kings' 242 for six against Dolphins was their highest ever total in the Champions League Twenty20, emulating the all-time highest in the CLT20.  Otago had scored 242 for four versus Scorchers at Jaipur on September 25, 2013.

Dhoni, who scored his third first-ball duck in Twenty20, feels Chennai bowlers needed to be tighter on flat batting decks. Mohit Sharma (4/41) produced his second four-wicket haul in Twenty20, but the Dolphins made a stunning start, scoring 66 runs in the first four overs. The South Africans reached 50 off just 15 balls.

On the final count, it was Suresh Raina's 43-ball 90 that proved to be the decisive factor. Raina's innings was the game changer.

Dhoni said: "We batted really well, the wicket remained quite the same, credit to Raina and (Brendon) McCullum (49 off 29 balls) for a great start. It was important to utilize all our resources so we went really hard.

"With our bowling struggling slightly it was important to get those 15-20 extra runs, even if we go down (losing wickets) trying to get those runs.

"If you want to win tournaments you have to come up with better (bowling) performances, our batsmen won't score 240 every time."

Clearly, it were the batsmen who won the game for Chennai. In the mandatory powerplay, Chennai managed 70 runs for the loss of one wicket. But the Dolphins were not far behind. They scored 85 runs for the loss of two wickets, a record by any team in CLT20.

(With inputs from Rajesh Kumar)