Chennai Super Kings (CSK) failure to chase down 201 runs in 20 overs for qualification paved the way for Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) memorable heist in pulling off six consecutive wins after seven losses in eight games. Following the virtual knockout, Dinesh Karthik gave a dressing room pep talk stating how MS Dhoni’s 110 metres six assisted RCB to make the playoffs.
Seventeen runs required off six deliveries wasn’t an uphill task for an experienced duo with 504 matches under their belt. However, Yash Dayal came out as a match-winner defending the total despite a gargantuan six off Dhoni on the first ball. As the ball marooned towards the upper tiers in Chinnaswamy, the umpire had to request for a new ball that was less wet than the previous one (due to the dew factor). This actually helped Dayal to execute his slower ones perfectly as the ball stuck to the surface, befuddling Jadeja and Dhoni to force the strokes early on the last five deliveries.
While this was just one incident at the fag end of the tournament where CSK drowned like a sunken ship, there are other reasons behind their downfall in IPL 2024. Let us quickly hover through a few of them. 
Injury Management
CSK was one of those franchises plagued with injuries even before the tournament kicked off. Their prime opener, along with Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devon Conway, failed to recover in time despite predictions of a recovery by the first week of May. While Matheesha Pathirana and Mustafizur Rahman were brilliant with the ball, they failed to represent the side in the game’s later stages. The former played just six matches, while the latter missed the last four games due to national commitments. In addition, their lead Indian pacer, Deepak Chahar struggled with recurring injury yet again, while Ajinkya Rahane, Dhoni and Shivam Dube played through various injuries on several phases of the tourney.
In a high-octane event such as the IPL, a team needs to have fit cricketers giving their best throughout the competition, but somewhere down the line, CSK failed to raise the bar in terms of fitness. In a way, this affected their team game and poise, resulting in several changes along the batting or bowling order.
A laid-back batting approach
The IPL 2024 saw a record number of sixes being hit, the most in any IPL edition. Teams like SRH, KKR, DC and MI opted for an attacking approach inside the powerplay and the first half of the innings. This eventually led to totals such as 287, 277, 265, etc. The score of 250 has been breached several times this season and the highest score of 263 by RCB against Pune Warriors India was surpassed numerous times. Despite the shift in the T20 approach teams such as Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings languished behind in their intent.
CSK has an average powerplay score of 49 this season, while numbers between 60 and 80 were made visibly normal by the intent of the batters this year. SRH even broke the record of highest powerplay by KKR with Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma amassing 125 runs in six overs. Even KKR’s Phil Salt and Sunil Narine ripped apart the opposition bowlers on most days during the league stages while Jake Fraser-McGurk of Delhi Capitals smashed the ball with his baseball-like strokes. But when it came down to the Super Kings, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Rachin Ravindra started off similarly before the approach died down with numerous alterations in opening pairs.
Ajinkya Rahane opened for a few matches during the later stages of the tournament, 242 runs in 12 innings at a strike-rate of 123.46. Ravindra and Daryl Mitchell had a stop-start season, with the bulk of the run-scoring being done by skipper Ruturaj and Shivam Dube. However, they failed to glitter during the most important games at the fag end of the season, culminating further pressure on the lower order.
When filtered into the numbers during slog overs, Jadeja, Sameer Rizvi, Moeen Ali, Mitchell Santner, and Rahane had strike rate less than 130. While Mitchell and Ravindra averaged above 150, they lacked consistency and the average sunk below 25.
Unfit Dhoni and Lack of faith in bench strength
The former Indian captain returned in a yellow hue for the fans after clinching the trophy last year. What could’ve been a fairytale farewell for the former Indian skipper was carved out differently as Dhoni chose to gift the fans one more season. While the season is over for CSK and Dhoni is yet to confirm his availability status for the next year, he ensured there was no shortage of entertainment from his bat.
The only CSK batter to have an average of 50 and a strike rate of 200 this season was Dhoni, as the numbers read 53.67 and 220.55, respectively. Despite the impressive stats, he wasn’t fully fit and being the lone reliable wicketkeeper, Dhoni pulled himself throughout the tourney. There were scenarios where he was spotted wearing an ice cap, limping in the hotel, et al. Even a game saw Dhoni sending back Daryl Mitchell at the fag end of the contest, which could’ve turned out to be an easy double. These were signs of Dhoni carrying himself with the injury.
Also, coach Stephen Fleming stated that Dhoni would not be able to bat for a longer period of time, which further added a lot of permutations and combinations for the batter to do his job. In a huge stage like IPL, a franchise cannot constitute a team of ten or ten and a half people for most of the tournament and earn the silverware. They had Avanish Aravally as a backup for CSK with Conway being injured. Sameer Rizvi’s batting position was constantly shuffled, and the batter failed to transcend his domestic brilliance during the IPL stage. Moreover, the side also had the likes of Shaeek Rashid, who was a part of the India U19 set-up a couple of years back but did not get a match to bat. Down the wire, Dhoni’s role with the bat and his fitness concerns, coupled with his lack of faith and clarity in bench strength, was one of the factors that ruined the defending champions’ playoff chances.
