MS Dhoni on another narrow IPL defeat: ‘Losing close games a tough one to digest’

Rising Pune Supergiants fall just short in chasing Sunrisers Hyderabad’s target of 137 for eight despite Australian spinner Adam Zampa’s impressive six-wicket haul.

Rising Pune Supergiants batsman MS Dhoni plays a shot against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Noah Seelam / AFP

Sunrisers Hyderabad 137/8 (20/20 ov)

Rising Pune Supergiants 133/8 (20.0/20 ov)

Sunrisers Hyderabad won by 4 runs

Once the master strategist, India limited-overs captain MS Dhoni must be wondering what the missing ingredient is in Rising Pune Supergiants' miserable Indian Premier League campaign.

He addressed previous concerns, the team restricting Sunrisers Hyderabad to just 137 for eight with the help of a classy six-wicket haul from Adam Zampa, and yet still managed to end up on the losing side.

Dhoni wanted his bowlers to step up in the defeats earlier. They did on Tuesday.

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There was criticism that he has underutilised key all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin. Ashwin bowled a spell of 1-16 in his four overs and chipped in with 29 runs coming up the batting order later, ahead of Dhoni in the chase for 138. The only comfort for Dhoni was they lost, yet again, in the final over with Ashish Nehra restricting them to 133 for eight.

“Losing close games is a tough one to digest,” Dhoni said in the post-match address to StarSports.

Pune remained second from bottom with their eighth defeat while it was the turn of Sunrisers Hyderabad to take top billing in a season which has seen a neck-to-neck battle among the top four teams.

“That was a close match,” Hyderabad captain David Warner said. “I thought we were 25-30 runs below par, but the way the bowlers bowled was fantastic.”

Warner also complimented his Australian teammate Zampa “a fantastic leg-spinner”. His rival was named Man of the Match in a losing cause after he bowled four overs for 19 runs. Zampa was responsible for all six wickets to fall after openers Shikhar Dhawan (33), Warner (11) and Kane Williamson (32) had put Hyderabad well on track.

Yet, Pune floundered in their chase and were always behind from the first over when their batting mainstay Ajinkya Rahane was out for a duck.

It was symptomatic of Pune’s plight that Zampa was the best bowler and batsman George Bailey was the top scorer of the night (34) but the wins continue to allude them.

“The three games we have won comfortably,” Dhoni said. “The ones we have lost have been in the last over.”

“If you compare their bowling to ours, they exploit the conditions more,” he said of Hyderabad.

“We just jinx quite early and kept losing wickets. This was one game where we kept getting wickets.”

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