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3 Tactical Blunders By MS Dhoni That Led To CSK's Embarrassing Defeat vs Mumbai Indians

Abhinav Tyagi

MS Dhoni - (Source :AP)MS Dhoni - (Source :AP)

On Sunday, April 20, Chennai Super Kings locked horns against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium. It was Men in Yellow's eighth match of the tournament and they suffered a thumping nine wickets defeat against Hardik Pandya's side. 

Notably, CSK suffered their sixth defeat of the tournament and are placed last on the table with just 4 points in eight matches. Talking about the recently concluded match, CSK, batting first, put 176 runs on the board.

In reply, MI lost an early wicket but Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav stitched a crucial unbeaten 114 runs stand for the 2nd wicket and registered a nine-wicket win. Meanwhile, MS Dhoni was under criticism as it was CSK's 3rd defeat of the season under Dhoni's leadership.

Meanwhile, this article will shed light on three tactical blunders that led to Men in Yellow's embarrassing defeat.

1.Not Having Dewald Brevis In The Playing XI

The first blunder made by CSK and MS Dhoni was before the start of the match as they left Dewald Brevis out of the playing XI. Notably, CSK have lacked genuine power-hitters in the squad this season and all the batters so far have failed to accelerate the innings.

Thus, Brevis' inclusion would have been a game-changer as the South Africa star player is fresh off a great SA20 and would have been a great addition in the middle-order. Notably, in today's match against MI, CSK again struggled to utlise the middle-overs and Brevis would have scored quick runs there.

2. Wrong Choice Of Impact Sub

Another wrong decision made during the match was bringing in R Ashwin as an impact sub over Anshul Kamboj. Notably, Mitchell Santner bowled well for MI, and using that as an example, CSK brought in Ashwin. 

Ashwin, in his four overs, registered the figures of 0/25. He was economical, but the economy was never the demand of the recently concluded match. CSK required wicket-taking bowlers and Anshul Kamboj would have made a bigger impact than Ashwin. 

3. Reserving Best Bowlers Till The Last

Another bad decision taken by MS Dhoni during CSK vs MI Match was to reserve his best bowlers till the last. Notably, CSK only managed to put 2157 runs on the board. To top that, MI got off to their best start of the tournament and yet Dhoni didn't utilise Noor Ahmad or Matheesha Pathirana early on in the innings. 

Notably, Noor was introduced into the attack in the 10th over of the match, when MI were already 88/1 and the damage was done. Further, Pathirana was brought into attack in the 14th over of the game.