IPL 2019: Here's why MS Dhoni refused singles in 19th over...

MS Dhoni

MS Dhoni was at his menacing best during his CSK narrow one-run loss against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), here at the Chinnaswamy. By playing a vintage 84-run knock, which just came of 48 deliveries, Dhoni almost pulled off a miraculous chase on Sunday.

During the course of the chase, the former India skipper had categorically declined taking singles off three balls in the penultimate over when they needed 36 runs, preferring to keep strike than passing it on to new batsman Dwayne Bravo, who was at the other end.

Also Read: IPL 2019: It's the MS Dhoni way against Royal Challengers Bangalore

Questioned about his decision, Dhoni said: "As I had played so many deliveries, I could afford to take that risk because a lot of runs were needed. I think in 10 or 12 deliveries, we needed something close to 40 runs or 36 runs or something like that, which meant a lot of boundaries were needed.

"So yes, right now you can calculate, two runs over there, one run over there, and we are through, because we lost by one run, but at the same time what you have to see is what if there were a few dot balls, whether we could have got those extra boundaries or not," he added.

Dhoni said that Bravo would have found it difficult on the "spungy" track. "It was still difficult at the end. It was slightly spungy and the new batsman would have found it difficult."

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