IPL 2018: MS Dhoni's entrepreneurial approach against DD helps CSK come back even stronger after defeat

It’s a routine we are all used to seeing at the end of every game of cricket. The losing captain is asked about the “positives” he can take out from the game. Last Saturday, after losing a game to Mumbai Indians at Chennai Super Kings’ adopted home Pune, Dhoni said the following lines: [caption id=“attachment_4452169” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] MS Dhoni plays a shot during Chennai Super Kings’ match against Delhi Daredevils. AFP[/caption] “Losses like these make you humble. If you keep winning, you don’t know the areas you’ve to work hard. It’s a good game, gives us an idea of what we should do in such situations.” He went on to add, “We’ve relied on brilliant individual performances, but here we were 10-15 short.” The next day, CSK’s head coach Stephen Fleming analysed the loss further with the following words of wisdom: “We are going to be careful that we don’t get carried away by the loss. The biggest thing for us is to get to know the pitch here. We have learnt a little bit again today, and we have only got a day to make sure we try and get the right combination.” Sounds routine enough, right? You have to say these things in the press after a loss to keep the morale of the team up. But great units aren’t built just on morale; they also improve continuously. Entrepreneurs are often told to “fail fast” these days. In a long IPL season, you have to apply the same principle. If you are looking for a cricket entrepreneur, then look no further than MS Dhoni. While teams like Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils took time to learn from their defeat, Dhoni and his think tank quickly sprung into action to analyse the defeat openly and honestly and then applied the learnings in the very next game. “The process” that Dhoni often talks about is often invisible to the onlookers, but between Saturday and Monday, you can see it as clear as day. As good leaders do, Dhoni exemplified the improvements first up. He made four changes to his playing eleven. Deepak Chahar was out with an injury, so his hand was forced in a way, but he used the opportunity to try other combinations in his playbook. The result was pushing Ambati Rayudu, who has had a great run at the top of the order, back in the middle. He was tweaking a batting order that was working well to make it work perfectly. CSK batted first again and started well just like on Saturday, but on this occasion, the inning didn’t lose momentum after two quick wickets like it did on Saturday. Rayudu stayed busy from the start and then Dhoni himself got off the blocks in a jiffy, unlike his effort on Saturday where he was stuck at 1 off 7. Then the real move on started in the seventeenth over against Boult where CSK collected 21 courtesy some flat, powerful hits off Dhoni’s bat. A 20-plus run over changes the complexion of a T20 game. You often see a team that is behind suddenly getting 20 off an over, and the tide suddenly turns. This time CSK were already ahead and just ran away with the game after that over. 211 was always going to be too much for a Delhi batting line-up that has been low on confidence this season. Dhoni had a new opening bowling attack for this game. He had noted after the defeat on Saturday that there is something in the pitch if you can bang it in at short of a length. So, in came the nippy KM Asif and out went Shardul Thakur. Lungi Ngidi was an automatic selection on this pitch, once he was available. Asif justified his selection immediately with the wicket of Prithvi Shaw with a short of a length delivery bowled at 142 clicks. The plan was already working. At the other end, Ngidi was making things awkward for the batsmen with his pace and bounce. Harbhajan Singh bowled a splendid spell again, just like he did on Saturday. Not many teams were keen on him during the auction, but he has repaid the faith shown in him by the CSK management who clearly disregard age as a factor in team selections. Harbhajan succeeds in the middle overs by bowling a length and a line that makes the batsmen reach out for the ball if they want to play an attacking shot. To go with that, he watches the batsmen like a hawk and makes subtle, late adjustments in his trajectory if he sees any premeditation. It would have been a perfect game for CSK if their death bowling had also worked like other areas of the game. It was marked as an area of improvement by Fleming, but at the moment, it requires more work. Dwayne Bravo is either telegraphing his slower balls too early these days, or the batsmen are just picking him better. They seem to wait for those slower balls now and treat them with disdain. Knowing CSK’s obsession for self-improvement, you can bet on Dhoni and Fleming already discussing alternate plans. At the presentation ceremony, Dhoni talked like a captain who is already looking at the next game instead of basking in the glory of victory, “We have to keep in mind the eliminators and the finals if we make it. Those would be played on the small grounds. The margin of error at this level is not much. Whatever is not working, one has to get a marker and work on it. Bowlers have to adapt. Otherwise, we will have to look at other options.” That’s MS Dhoni for you. Always ahead of the game. By the time other teams adapt to his ingenious ways, he will transform himself and his team into a different beast.