IPL 2025 | Dhoni wants better wickets in IPL, says nobody wants to play 'timid' cricket

Lucknow: Chennai Super Kings skipper M S Dhoni on Monday asked the IPL organisers to prepare better pitches that encourage shot making, saying no team wants to play "timid" cricket.

Dhoni was especially referring to the surface at CSK's home ground Chepauk, which has been their citadel all these years but has turned out to be a nightmare for the five-time champions this season.

CSK finally snapped their five-match losing streak by beating Lucknow Super Giants by five wickets and Dhoni played a pivotal role with a 11-ball 26-run cameo to finish off the game for the visitors.

"One of the reasons could be that the Chennai wicket is slightly on the slower side. When we have played away from home, the batting unit has done slightly better. Maybe we need to play on wickets that are slightly better so that it'll give the batters confidence to play their shots. You don't want to play timid cricket," Dhoni said after the match.

"As a bowling unit we've done well. As a batting unit, we can do better." Dhoni, who was the player of the match, said the win will give a whole lot of confidence to the side.

"It's good to win a game. When you play a tournament like this, you want to win games. Unfortunately the (earlier) matches didn't go our way for whatever reasons. There can be lots of reasons. It's good to have a win on our side. Gives confidence to the whole team and helps us improve in areas we want to improve."

LSG skipper Rishabh Pant, who broke his lean patch with a 49-ball 63-run knock, said he is slowly getting into his rhythm.

"I am feeling better with each and every game, but sometimes it doesn't come off. Slowly getting into my rhythm, taking every match at a time," he said.

Pant explained the reason behind not giving Ravi Bishnoi (2/18) the last over despite the leg-spinner being their best bowler on the day.

"We discussed with a lot of players, but we couldn't take him (Bishnoi) deeper, that (bowling him in the last over) didn't happen today.

"Bowling in the powerplay has been a concern for us, but we can pull things back. As a team we are looking to take the positives from each and every game."

Pant felt LSG were a few runs short on a two-paced Ekana Stadium pitch.

"We feel that as a team we were 10 to 15 runs short, we kept losing wickets when the momentum was with us. We had to keep stitching in partnerships. The wicket was stopping a bit, but we could have got 15 runs more I feel," he said.