IPL 2019: Finishing in the top-two gives us a second chance, says Dhoni

Asked about Chennai Super Kings' batting, which has largely revolved around its captain, Dhoni felt "the batting needs to get better."

Dhoni: "I think we were a bit unlucky at times (while bowling), some balls dropped right in the middle, a few catches weren't taken."

Chennai Super Kings skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, on Wednesday, regretted his team's loss to Mumbai Indians in the first qualifier at Chepauk but remained hopeful of making it to the finals.

"It isn't good to lose games at such times, but it is good that we finished in the top-two, rather then going over the wicket (straight to the finals), we now need to go round the wicket (to qualifier 2), that means the journey takes a longer time. But luckily, we finished in the top-two and that gives us a second chance," Dhoni said after the match.

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Batting first, Chennai could only muster 131 with the Mumbai spinners calling the shots in the middle overs. And the CSK bowlers, especially Deepak Chahar and spinner Ravindra Jadeja, were unfortunate to see catches getting dropped off their bowling. "I think we were a bit unlucky at times (while bowling), some balls dropped right in the middle, a few catches weren't taken," Dhoni said.

"We perhaps had to bowl slightly away from the batsmen, could have slowed down the pace and bowl with more variations. But we didn't have runs on the board, so every boundary conceded in a 130 defence was bad," he added.

Asked about the team's batting, which has largely revolved around its captain, Dhoni felt "the batting needs to get better."

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"These are the best batsmen we have got, it looks like we are are batting well, but at times, but in different games, they pull off shots that shouldn't be played. These are the players who we have banked on, they have the experience and they should know to assess the conditions better, hopefully, we will do well in the next game.

"Somebody has to lose, things really didn't go our way, especially batting. At home, we had to assess the conditions quickly, we have played 6 to 7 games on this pitch and should have read the pitch better, that's the home advantage. We needed to know how the pitch behaves, would it be tacky? Is the ball coming on or not, those were the things we didn't do well."