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

The CSK were beaten by Sunrisers Hyderabad by 7 runs

Abu Dhabi, October 3: Chennai Super Kings were pushed down to the bottom of the IPL 2020 table after their third consecutive defeat in four matches, this time against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Friday (October 2).

MS Dhoni stayed till the end but his 36-ball 47 only helped to narrow the margin of defeat, 7 runs and it also masked the fact that the Super Kings had lost the match much earlier.

Dhoni was struggling to middle the ball, and was also in visible discomfort towards the end of his innings, taking time out twice. The CSK captain did not shrug away from the fact that he was finding it tough to middle the ball, sort of accepting the blame for not taking Chennai past the tape.

"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," said Dhoni in the post-match presentation.

On his fitness Dhoni 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.