Chennai: Mahendra Singh Dhoni Friday didn’t turn up for Chennai Super Kings due to fever and Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma said the veteran stumper’s absence came as a ‘massive boost’ for his side en route to their 46-run win in an IPL match here.
Sans Dhoni, CSK failed to chase down 156-run target set by MI, bundling out for 109, their lowest total at home.
“It was a massive boost that MSD (Dhoni) wasn’t around. Because his presence does a lot for their team. When you don’t have Dhoni when they’re chasing the score, then it becomes difficult for them,” Rohit said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
“I’m sure his presence was missed by CSK. But he was sick, it’s not in his control either,” added the right-handed batsman, who struck 67, his first fifty of the season.
Rohit said it was a blessing in disguise for him to lose the toss as they too would wanted to chase on what eventually turned out to be another slow Chepauk surface. “I thought it was better to lose the toss since we wanted to chase as well. But we knew whether we bat first or bowl first, we’ll still have to play good cricket. We spoke about that at the start of the game, but it was a great effort by the boys since it’s not easy to come here and play,” he said.
PTI