Cape Town: The second consecutive defeats in the Champions League T20 on Tuesday have made the Chennai Super Kings way to the semi-final difficult. Blaming the six-wicket loss to Highveld Lions to the timing of the no ball bowled by his bowlers, CSK skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni said that small things mattered.

Dhoni said that despite getting a good start, they lost too many wickets in the middle and that restricted them to 158. “We got off to a very good start but we lost too many wickets in the middle. So we were not able to slog the way we could have. But we still got the score we wanted. I think 160 was a good score. However, we failed to defend it. I think the timings of the no-balls were crucial. Small things matter. All of a sudden the momentum shifted and Highveld Lions were able to score a lot more freely,” said Dhoni.

Meanwhile Highveld Lions captain Alviro Petersen was in all praise for his batsmen. "Halfway through the game I thought we gave 15 runs too many but the batsmen stayed calm. Gulam Bodi played exceptionally well with Neil McKenzie and the two young men finished it for us. It was a case of getting to the last three overs. Guys at the end showed some mettle and steel. Generally 10-15 overs is a sort of dead period, you tend to knock it around, but Gulam never allowed the rate to go beyond 10-11 runs an over,” said Petersen.

Aaron Phangiso, who was awarded the man of the match said, "It was a nice wicket to bowl on and proved to be one of those days where the ball came nicely out of the hand. It was a bit slow."

By Indian Sports News Network