: The extended two-week quarantine of Chennai Super Kings hampered his preparations as he did not get enough time for batting practice

Sharjah: The extended two-week quarantine of Chennai Super Kings hampered his preparations as he did not get enough time for batting practice, said captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni after his side lost to Rajasthan Royals by 16 runs in their second IPL game.

Dhoni came in to bat at No. 7, sending the likes of Sam Curran and Kedar Jadhav ahead of him in a mammoth 217-run chase on Tuesday.

MS DhoniAsked why he came so low in the order, the CSK captain said, "I haven't batted for a long time. 14-day quarantine doesn't help."

Dhoni's reference was to CSK's extra one-week quarantine after 13 people in their contingent tested positive for Covid-19, resulting in missing out on important training sessions.

Although he didn't name Murali Vijay but the veteran opener's run-a-ball 21 was one of the reasons for CSK falling short besides an off-day from his spin duo of Ravindra Jadeja and Piyush Chawla.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni

"With 217 on the board, we needed a very good start which was not the case. Steve Smith and Sanju Samson batted very well. We need to give credit to their bowlers. Once you've seen the first innings, you knew the lengths to bowl," Dhoni said.

"Their spinners did well to bowl away from the batsman. Our spinners made the error to bowl too full. If we would've maybe restricted them to 200, it would've been a good game."