Super Kings captain MS Dhoni

After his side`s narrow 13-run victory over Bangalore Royal Challengers here today, Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni said the match was a close one and only a few overs had decided the match. We held on to our nerves and it was a close finish. When we were batting, the ball was swinging till the 15th-16th over. Michael Hussey started to slog and I joined him. That was how we scored a competitive total of 178,” Dhoni said at the post-match press conference. When they bowled, Dhoni said they committed a mistake by not shinning the ball on one side till late in the home team`s run chase. We started shinning the ball from the 15th over onwards, that was an important factor in our win,” he said. Royal Challengers were cruising at one time but fell short of the target as they lost their last seven wickets for just 38 runs. On how his team will cope now that three of their key players - Mathew Hayden, Michael Hussey and Jacob Oram - will miss further action in the IPL tournament due to their national duty, Dhoni said his side has other overseas players to replace them. We still have Stephen Fleming, Albie Morkel and Makhaya Ntini to deliver the goods for us. The good news is that our bowlers are doing well particularly when our attack is considered very weak among the teams in the IPL,” said Dhoni. He praised medium pacer Manpreet Gony for his effort, saying, “He knows his limitations improving by every match. His strength is that he bowls in the right areas and waits for the batsman to take the risk. Losing skipper Rahul Dravid rued not to have won the game from a position of strength. We were in control while chasing. (Wasim) Jaffer and (Ross) Taylor batted well and they had set up the game but later we lost too many wickets too quickly,” he lamented the missed chance. When bowling also, we were in control till the 18th over. But somehow we conceded lots of runs in the last two overs. No doubt Dhoni batted really well. We should not be chasing more than 150 in this match but Dale Steyn`s last over proved dear for us and Dhoni`s assault was too much,” said Dravid. Dravid, who scored his second successive duck in the tournament, rued his poor form. I don`t know what form I`m in. It was sad to get a duck again and in Twenty20 matches you hardly get time to settle down,” he said. Royal Challengers next move to Delhi to play Delhi Daredevils on April 30 before returning home on may 3 to take on Deccan Chargers.

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