MS Dhoni faced a bit of criticism after he denied Daryl Mitchell a single during the final over of Chennai Super Kings' innings during the IPL 2024 match against Punjab Kings on Wednesday. On the third ball of the final over, Dhoni played the ball towards extra cover and Mitchell quickly went for a run. However, Dhoni was not interested and Mitchell ended up 'completing' two runs by the time the fielder picked the ball up and threw it back. While Dhoni did hit a mammoth six just two balls later, former India cricketer Aakash Chopra was not happy with Dhoni not giving an explosive batter like Mitchell the strike.
"In the end, Dhoni even refused to take a single. It's fine but Daryl Mitchell is Daryl Mitchell. You were not batting with Mustafizur, no disrespect, but he refused. He hit a six but the runs were never going to be enough, and that's exactly how it panned out," said Chopra on his YouTube channel.
Coming to the match, Punjab Kings kept their IPL 2024 playoff dreams alive with a big seven-wicket victory over Chennai Super Kings.
CSK skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad said that they were "50-60 run short" in the encounter.
"Probably 50-60 runs short, the pitch wasn't great when we batted, it got better later on. With the impact rule as well, we were well short. I've practiced the tosses (during the practice sessions), it's not going well in the match, not sure what to do. To be truthful, I'm under pressure when I go to the middle (for the toss). We were also surprised that we won by a big margin in the last match considering the conditions (win by 78 runs against SRH)."
"I think the last two games, the conditions and pitch was better, it allowed us to fight hard and get to 200+, today, it wasn't good enough to get to even 180."
"It's a real problem (on the player missing due to injuries and Chahal walking away in the first over), there are phases where you want wickets, but you have only two bowlers, the dew took the spinners out of the equation. It was tough, but there're four games left and we will try and come back to winning ways."