IPL 2020: CSK vs SRH: Priyam Garg, spinners hand Sunrisers narrow win; Super Kings suffer third straight defeat

Dubai, October 2: Another run chase, another MS Dhoni unbeaten knock, and another defeat for Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020. Super Kings suffered their third successive defeat of the season as they lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad by 7 runs here on Friday (October 2) in Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

Chasing a target of 165, the Yellow Army could only muster 157 for 5 with their skipper remaining unbeaten at 47 courtesy exceptional bowling by Sunrisers' spinners which gave the David Warner-led side a narrow win.

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This is the first time since 2014, Chennai Super Kings have suffered three consecutive defeats in the IPL.

CSK lost quick wickets at the start as Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, Faf du Plessis and Kedar Jadhav fell early in the run chase. It was then left to experienced Ravindra Jadeja (50) and his skipper Dhoni (47 not out off 36 balls) to do the job. The seasoned campaigners together added 72 runs for the fifth wicket but could not take the side home, ending at 157 for five.

The last time CSK lost 3 matches in a row, Priyam Garg was in Class VII and Manmohan Singh was PM. The last time they lost 3 out of 4 at the start of the tournament, Barack Obama just had his first inauguration as President & Dev.D had just been released.

— Joy Bhattacharjya (@joybhattacharj) October 2, 2020

IPL 2020: CSK vs SRH, Match 14 Highlights: SRH win as MS Dhoni again fails in run chase

With 28 required from the final six deliveries, Dhoni and his batting partner Sam Curran (15 not out off 5) could only score 20 against young Abdul Samad - who bowled the final over.

Earlier, a gritty batting performance by young Indian batsmen Priyam Garg (51 not out) and Abhishek Sharma helped the Orange Army post a respectable total on the board even as the senior-pros failed badly.

MS Dhoni accepts blame after Chennai Super Kings crash to third straight defeat in IPL 2020

SRH scored a competitive 164 for five, riding on former India U-19 captain Priyam Garg's half-century and his 77-run stand with Abhishek (31). Had it not been for some sensible batting by Abhishek and Garg, SRH would not have a competitive total on the board.

Those BP tablets surely came in handy 😅

Good game, @ChennaiIPL!

— SunRisers Hyderabad (@SunRisers) October 2, 2020

CSK's poor fielding also aided SRH as the fielders dropped Sharma twice in the 18th over bowled by Deepak Chahar.

Dhoni - who became the most-capped IPL player (194 games) tonight - later took the blame for the defeat and said: "I was not able to middle a lot of deliveries, maybe trying to hit the ball too hard. Looking at the outfield, it was subconscious."

In the post-match presentation talking about his fitness, the 39-year-old cricketer said: "I'm alright, the throat starts to get dry in these sort of conditions."

Of course, Dhoni has a lot more important things in hand, as CSK lost three matches in a row, a first after 2014 season and to add to that there were dropped catches and pieces of shoddy fielding.

"We have to get a lot of things right. It's the professionalism - dropping catches, bowling no-balls. We're making the same mistakes again. After the 16th over, we had two bad overs. Overall, we could have been slightly better.

"Nobody wants to drop catches, but at this level you have to draw a line that these catches have to be taken. (Dropping) catches like these can really hamper your knockout stage games. What if this was a knockout game? But there are plenty of positives in this game and a few areas to improve and we'll come back stronger," Dhoni said.