If there’s one thing that Chennai Super Kings and Mahendra Singh Dhoni aren’t used to then that’s serial failures. However, the pangs of 2020 have even made three-time IPL champion and the most consistent team of the competition crumble.

After being outclassed by Rajasthan Royals, MS Dhoni admitted on Monday that Chennai Super Kings have not lived up to their billing this Indian Premier League season.

Three-time winners CSK, who have been criticised for continuing with their old warhorses and dubbed as the “Dads Army” by media, suffered their seventh defeat in the ongoing IPL.

“You don’t want to chop and change. Insecurity is something you don’t want to prevail in the dressing room. Fair enough, this season we weren’t really there,” the former Indian captain said at the presentation ceremony after suffering the seven-wicket loss.

Talking about the new blood in the side, the 39-year-old said, “Also the youngsters, we didn’t see the spark to push the guys. But what this result has done is give those youngsters a chance in the rest of the tournament.”

“Maybe going forward we bring them in and they play without pressure.”

Royals’ restricted CSK to a modest 125 for five after being invited to bowl. Chennai’s top-order failed to fire, however, Dhoni’s run-a-ball 28 and an unbeaten 35 from Ravindra Jadeja gave the team a respectable total.

Jofra Archer led Royals’ bowling unit with figures of 1-20 from his spell and scalped the all-important wicket of CSK’s only shining light – Faf du Plessis.

Dhoni said, “There was a bit for the fast bowlers and the reason I brought (Ravindra) Jadeja was to see how much it was stopping and it didn’t as much as the first innings. So I went with the fast bowlers. I don’t think the spinners got as much bite.”

“It’s not always supposed to go your way. We have to see if the process was wrong. The result is a by-product of the process, but the fact still remains that if you’re focused on the process then the undue pressure of result doesn’t enter the dressing room.” 

Thanks to a 98-run fourth-wicket partnership between Jos Buttler (70) and skipper Steven Smith (26), the Rajasthan outfit overcame the target in 17.3 overs.

RR captain Smith was relieved to have secured a crucial win at an important stage of the tournament.

“The wicket was stopping, wasn’t easy for batting. Strange game but nice to be on the winning side.

“I thought we bowled pretty well in the powerplay and the spinners did a good job in the middle with their leggies and googlies and squeezing,” he said.

Both leg-spinners Shreyas Gopal and Rahul Tewatia were miserly in
their eight overs, giving away just 32 runs between them and chipping a wicket
each.

“Buttler’s innings took the pressure off me at the other end. It was a really good innings on a wicket that wasn’t the easiest,” Smith added.

While most batters struggled to score freely in what the RR skipper adjudged as a “wasn’t easy for batting” wicket, Buttler scored away at a strike-rate of 145.83 and was awarded the Man of the Match. 

“I tried to come out with a bit of intensity with my batting, something I felt I didn’t have last match. I felt more comfortable at the crease. It was a nice feeling,” remarked the swashbuckling Englishman.