MS Dhoni says his return as captain and the Chennai Super Kings’ comfortable IPL victory over the Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday was a mere “coincidence”.

Openers Ruturaj Gaikwad (99) and Devon Conway (85*) put on this season’s best stand of 182 to guide Chennai to 202-2, a total their bowlers defended by restricting Hyderabad to 189-6 in the second match of the day in Pune.

Dhoni, who gave up the captaincy ahead of this IPL, accepted the job back on Saturday after Ravindra Jadeja stepped down following the team’s six losses from eight games but played down the leadership switch.

“I did nothing different, when you are in the same dressing room you keep saying the same things,” the 40-year-old Dhoni said after Chennai’s third win this season.

“It’s not like when you change the captain a lot of things change. It’s one of those coincidences where we got off to a good start and forced the bowlers to bowl the areas where we wanted to hit.”

Dhoni said Jadeja’s all-round form seemed to have affected his game which led to the captaincy changeover midway.

“Once you become captain, it means a lot of demands come in and can affect the player’s performance and occupy their mind, which I think was the case with him,” said Dhoni.

“I think captaincy burdened his prep and performances, it meant he could not go with the bat and ball with the same intensity.”

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© Agence France-Presse