Dhoni urges Super Kings bowlers to improve their death overs effort

MS Dhoni says Chennai Super Kings bowlers perforce need to improve their effort in the death overs

Pune, May 1: Mahendra Singh Dhoni said Chennai Super Kings will have to address the death over worries at the earliest before it is too late. Even though Chennai emerged a 13-run winner over Delhi Daredevils, their bowling in the closing stages left a lot to be desired.

"Death bowling hasn't been good, and if we reach the final, which will be held in small grounds, the margin for error is very small," said Dhoni after the match. Even a death over specialist like Dwayne Bravo bowled poor lengths and conceded 43 runs from three overs.

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Dhoni was, however, in praise of South African pacer Lungi Ngidi, who made his IPL debut on Monday (April 30).

"Ngidi has been impressive since India's tour of South Africa. He's tall and gets bounce," said Dhoni.

Dhoni also stressed on the need to manage the workload during the hectic IPL days and cited that as a reason for making as many as four changes in the line-up that faced Delhi Daredevils.

"It's quite bad, but nothing much can be done because there's not much of a resting period. I haven't been training much because of that. T20 is not much workload, so it's manageable," he said.

Talking about finding suitable players at each position, Dhoni said: "It's very important for us to get off to a good start, not necessarily in terms of runs, but even a good partnership, and I can promote myself and come out at No. 5. It's more fun when you go into the 8th and 10th overs and the bowler doesn't know when you will go for the big runs.

"Looking at the wicket, we thought we'll get an overseas batsman in. We thought Sam needed a bit of rest and hence brought Faf du Plessis in. Having Rayudu in the middle and Faf open gives more stability to the middle order. Rayudu can score runs at any position, so that was the best decision."

Shane Watson was adjudged Man of the Match for his 40-ball 78 and the Aussie was chuffed with his effort.

"I needed to try and help the team a bit more with the bat, and it's good to do that, especially against a bowling line-up like Delhi's. I got a few balls to get myself going. It was nice to get a few off the middle. At this stage of my career, to get the opportunity to play in a wonderful tournament like the IPL is great. MS is hitting the ball as well as he ever has," said Watson.