Kevin Pietersen has reacted strongly to MS Dhoni's batting approach against Rajasthan Royals.
Chennai Super Kings captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni raised a few eyebrows with his tactics during the game against Rajasthan Royals. He came to bat at number seven in a 217-run chase and left many fans and experts confused about his batting position in the game.
While Dhoni justified that he had been away from action for a long time, former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir had slammed him for "not leading from front." Kevin Pietersen, the former England cricketer has now joined the list of Dhoni's critics for his tactics in the game.
"Yeah, you got to get up. You have to at least give yourself the opportunity to win the game. That’s what Sunny is talking about,” Pietersen said in the post-match show following RR's victory in the game.
When Dhoni came to bat in the run-chase, CSK required 103 runs to win in 38 deliveries. However, for a large part of his time on the crease, Dhoni dealt in singles and doubles, opting to give strike to Faf du Plessis who was the highest run-scorer of the innings.
“So we were talking about a 4 or 5-over period when they were just knocking it around, knocking it around and running silly singles. They could have caught the game up there with a little bit of intent. They could have easily knocked this score off. If you need 20 in the last over, you can win this game," said the former England cricketer.
"It’s not about experiments, saying ‘oh it’s early on in the tournament’. Let me tell you, T20 cricket can bite you very, very quickly. You can end up losing five games on the go very quickly, and then you can end up thinking ‘oh my goodness, are we actually going to get into the finals?’. I am not buying into this nonsense."
Dhoni hit three consecutive sixes during the final over of the match, but the game was already lost by then. CSK lost the match by 16 runs.
