'I will take the blame for it' – Dhoni accepts responsibility after CSK's narrow loss to RCB in IPL 2025

‘I will take the blame for it’ – Dhoni accepts responsibility after CSK’s narrow loss to RCB in IPL 2025 (Source: X/Twitter)

Match 52 of the ongoing (Indian Premier League) turned out to be an absolute humdinger as it went down to the wire. Notably, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) hosted the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the iconic M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Saturday, May 3.

After being set a challenging target of 214 runs, CSK had a blazing start before Shaik Rasheed was dismissed with the score at 51. Thereafter, it was the Ayush Mhatre show, who missed out on a well-deserved century by a whisker. Even though all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja dug in at one end, CSK kept losing wickets at regular intervals. As a result, in the final stage of the game, they failed to cross the line and went down fighting, losing the match by just two runs.

However, after the match, CSK captain 's gesture became the headline. He reflected on his team’s underwhelming performance, which has continued in IPL 2025. Quite surprisingly, he took responsibility for the loss upon himself rather than blaming the rest of the players. Dhoni said that he could have made the difference by contributing more with the bat, by converting singles or dot balls into boundaries. Consequently, this could have eased the team’s pressure during the run chase. He also lauded Romario Shepherd, who completely took apart CSK’s bowling with his brutal hitting.

"I felt I should have converted a couple of more shots and eased the pressure, so I will take the blame for it. Shepherd in the death overs was excellent – whatever we were bowling, he was able to hit it for maximum runs," Dhoni said during the post-match presentation.

Furthermore, he stressed the importance of executing yorkers to perfection to make life difficult for batters, especially in high-pressure situations. He gave the example of Matheesha Pathirana, saying the pacer has ample variations to contain the opposition. However, if he fails to nail the yorkers against a well-set batter, he is most likely to go for big runs.

Dhoni highlights bowling challenges and batting lessons

MS Dhoni also said that his batters lack practice in playing unorthodox shots like the paddle sweep. Though he felt Ravindra Jadeja does play it at times, other batters still need to catch up. He signed off by saying that the team needs to learn from these experiences to grow into a stronger unit.

"We need to practise more yorkers. More often than not, when the batters start to connect, you have to rely on the yorkers. If you cannot nail the yorker, the low full toss is the next best option. Someone like Pathirana—he has the pace, he can bowl the bouncer as well—and if he misses the yorker, the batter has a chance to hit it," the CSK skipper continued.

"Not all batters are comfortable playing that (the paddle) shot. It’s something the batters need to practise in the modern era. But most of our batters are not comfortable playing it. Jadeja plays that shot, but he was backing his shots down the ground more. Batting was an area where we were slightly behind. But today, as a department, I feel the batting did very well," Dhoni concluded.