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A dejected Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma rued his side's top-order woes in IPL 2022 but could only admire veteran Mahendra Singh Dhoni for his match-winning knock on Thursday.
MI slumped to their seventh loss in this IPL 2022 with Dhoni showing his finishing prowess with a 13-ball 28 not out to guide Chennai Super Kings to a three-wicket win in a last-ball finish.
"It was a great fight from us. We were right in the game. After batting not so well, our bowlers kept us in the game all through. But in the end, we all know how calming MS Dhoni can be and he took them home," Rohit said after the match.
"It's hard to put a finger on that (top order problems). If you lose three or a couple of wickets up front, it's always going to be tough. You're always playing that catching (up) game."
After a disastrous start, Tilak Varma's 51 not out helped MI to reach a decent total of 155/7, but CSK sneaked home off the last ball of the match.
"We got to a very reasonable target where we thought with the ball we could put them under pressure. I thought till the last over, we had them under pressure.
"But in the end, MS and Pretorius, they were quite calm and got them home."
Rohit said the pitch was good and his side could have got more runs after being invited to bat.
CSK captain Ravindra Jadeja was all praise for Dhoni.
"Actually we were very tense, the way the game was going, but at some stage we knew that the great finisher of the game was there and if he played to the last ball, he can definitely finish the match.
"He (Dhoni) showed the world that he's still here and he can finish the game."
On Ambati Rayudu and Dwayne Bravo, he said, "We have plenty of experience in our team so they know when to perform and what to do. So if we're not winning the game, still we look to be calm and relax.
"I don't take fielding for granted and still work on it. We need to do some work on our fielding and take catches because we can't keep dropping catches in every game," Jadeja said about his side's below-par fielding show in the match.