Dhoni is better, will probably play against RCB: Raina

Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Chennai Super Kings by six wickets in their Indian Premier League encounter on Wednesday and while M.S. Dhoni's absence was felt, stand-in skipper Suresh Raina felt that it was a good wake-up call for the team as things start moving towards the business end. It was only the second loss of the season for CSK.

"I think it is a very good wake-up call. I think we didn't put a decent score on the board and kept losing wickets," he pointed.

Raina said that losing wickets at regular intervals didn't help even though the openers gave Chennai a good start and it needed Shahbaz Nadeem to finally dismiss Shane Watson to break the 79-run opening stand between him and Faf du Plessis.

"Faf and Watson gave us a good start but we could not capitalize. We lost too many wickets in between and that's why it cost us the game. We should have looked for partnerships and should have rotated our strike better. Hence, we were 30 runs short," he said.

While the world wanted to know the status of Dhoni's back, Raina said that Captain Cool was already feeling better. "He (MS Dhoni) is feeling better. His back was stiff. Probably he will play in the next game against RCB," he revealed.

Raina also had a word of encouragement for Imran Tahir as the South Africa leg-spinner has been brilliant this season for Chennai. "He (Imran Tahir) has been giving us breakthroughs. You just throw the ball to him and he delivers. He has been bowling really well. As long as senior players are there, you just need to do well as a unit," he summed up.

--IANS

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