dhoni

Focus on one game at a time: Dhoni

20th May 2008

With seven victories to their credit so far, Chennai Super Kings have inched closer to the knock-out round of the Twenty20 championship of the DLF Indian Premier League (IPL). However, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni insists that his unit will continue to focus on one game at a time.

After defeating Kolkata Knight Riders on their home turf at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata by a slender margin of three runs on May 18 on the basis of the Duckworth-Lewis method, the Chennai Super Kings further strengthened their position in the League standings. With 14 points in their kitty, they continue to be at the third spot.

While speaking to reporters at the post-match press conference, Dhoni did not indicate any particular aim for a semi-final berth. Instead, he stated that his team had three more games to go before the knock-out round and hence "they will continue to take one game at a time".

He mentioned that even if they had won the toss, they would have opted to chase anyway since they had anticipated the Duckworth-Lewis method to be applied before the match started due to a rain forecast.

Earlier, Kolkata had won the toss and elected to bat. But as rain struck in the later stages of the game, Chennai's innings were reduced to eight overs.

Dhoni appreciated the bowling efforts of his teammates praising them for giving the team "a perfect start" and maintaining a decent economy rate.

He further informed that he picked up an injury on his index finger when he collected a delivery off Makhaya Nitini while wicketkeeping. The injury was still causing discomfort but Dhoni was hopeful of a speedy recovery. South African Ntini claimed an unconventional hat-trick in the match by taking his first wicket off the last ball of the fifth over followed by two wickets off the first two deliveries of the 17th over in his next spell.

Chennai Super Kings will now host the Bangalore Royals Challengers on May 21 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.