IPL 2018: Defeat to Mumbai Indians blessing in disguise, says MS Dhoni

• CSK lost to defending champions MI by eight wickets.
• Skipper Rohit hit a 33-ball 56 to help MI gun down a 170-run target.
• Dhoni insisted his team were 10-15 runs short with the bat in Pune.

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain MS Dhoni said his side's eight-wicket defeat to Mumbai Indians (MI) on Saturday, April 28 will only make the table-toppers "humble" and help them improve in the upcoming matches of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018.

Dhoni noted that CSK were 10 to 15 runs short on what seemed a two-paced wicket at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune. He also pointed out that his bowlers could have executed their plans better while defending a 170-run target.

MI gunned down a 170-run target without taking too many risks — a win that helped them vault to the sixth spot on the points table.

CSK fail to make good use of solid start, Rohit leads MI chase

In what the reverse fixture of the season opener, which CSK won by a wicket in the last over, Rohit Sharma won the toss and sent the hosts into bat.

Despite losing Shane Watson (12) early, Ambati Rayudu (46) and Suresh Raina (75) helped CSK set a solid platform for a big total. However, after the departure of the right-handed batsman, the home team struggled to get going as MI spinners put the brakes on Dhoni's scoring rate.

CSK huffed and puffed to 169, thanks to some big hits towards the end of the innings from Raina's blade.

However, MI were never put under pressure during their chase as CSK's new ball bowlers failed to strike inside the powerplay. While Elvin Lewis (34-ball 44) and Suryakumar Yadav (43-ball 47) gave them a solid start, skipper Rohit (33-ball 56) made sure his team collected two points on the big night.

"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: whether we need to score 20 runs more. It's still early in the competition," Dhoni said.

He added: "It's important to realise what went wrong. Losses like these makes you learn a lot. We've relied on brilliant individual performances, but here we were 10-15 short.

"Mumbai Indians bowled well in the middle overs...Choice of deliveries could've been better from our bowlers."

Dhoni's gamble to let Shardul Thakur bowl the 19th over of the innings ahead of death-over specialist Dwayne Bravo backfired as the former was taken to the cleaners by Rohit, who collected 17 runs in the over, reducing the equation to five runs off the last over.

Leaving out Pollard was tough: Rohit

Meanwhile, Rohit made two big changes to the playing XI as Kieron Pollard and Mustafizur Rahman were replaced by JP Duminy and Ben Cutting, respectively.

The winning captain revealed he took a tough decision by dropping Pollard. However, he insisted that the West Indies all-rounder, who had made only 63 runs in six matches, will be part of their plans in the upcoming games.

"Leaving out Pollard was tough, it was hard. He was ready to accept that, going forward I don't' want to dismiss him completely. He'll still be a match-winner but we've go with whatever gives us a chance to win," Rohit said.

"JP had done well for us, as he's done for Delhi. I don't want to be dismissive of anyone. We may have a few surprise changes going forward, whatever gives us a chance to win."