Scott Styris, the former New Zealand player who has also featured in the Chennai Super Kings side, has said MS Dhoni’s team is not in contention for a spot in the playoffs and it was a sad state of affairs. Chennai Super Kings are in the last spot with six points from 10 games and a loss against Mumbai Indians will knock them out mathematically from the race.
MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings are on the brink of elimination in IPL 2020. The three-time champions have a proud record of having qualified for the playoffs in every single edition that they have been part of. However, their proud record could come to an end in the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League. Unbelievably, Chennai Super Kings are in the last position with just six points from 10 games. Although they are still in the playoff race mathematically, a loss against Mumbai Indians in Sharjah could spell the end of the road for them mathematically.
They could still turn the campaign around by winning their remaining four games and ensure one of the four teams above them manages to win just one out of their remaining clashes. However, former New Zealand cricketer and Chennai Super Kings allrounder Scott Styris believes there is no hope.
“Short answer and it hurts me to say this, I don't think so. I think they are the one side who are out of this tournament right now. You could tell by Stephen Fleming's press conference in the last match. He believes the life cycle of this team is gone. We have been talking about it for 3 years, an ageing, old team. When that is the case, the performances, at some stage, were supposed to fall off the cliff as age catches up. I think this year is the year. I think they did well to get as far as they did last year. But there are so many match-winners in that CSK side who are a little bit older or not quite finding form. I can't see them turning it around. Apart from Faf du Plessis, with his consistent performances, and Deepak Chahar, there are not much else,” Styris remarked
White flag from MS Dhoni?
After the match against Rajasthan Royals in which they lost by seven wickets, MS Dhoni admitted that they ‘were not present’ in this season and expressed an opinion that their playoff chances were over.
“It's not always supposed to go your way. That's why what we try is going back to the process and see if the process is wrong or maybe we weren't able to execute. The result is always a byproduct of the process. We've tried a few things. That's one thing you don't want to do. You don't want to chop and change a lot. Because what happens is after three-four-five games you're not sure of anything. Fair enough, this season we weren't really there. Also, there were few chances given to youngsters. Maybe we didn't see the kind of spark that they could've given us to say okay you know push the experienced guys and make space for them,” Dhoni said.
Even in the post-match press conference that was attended by Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming, he admitted that the team was deflated.
“It's fair to say looking at the table now that this team may have run out of juice. I think there's an outside chance that we can get through, but when you're relying on other results and a change of form for your own team, it's hard to be upbeat and positive,” Fleming said in the aftermath of the defeat against Rajasthan Royals.
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