MS Dhoni delivered a vintage performance as a batter and captain as he led Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to a five-wicket win against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in Lucknow. It was his first win after returning as the CSK captain in the last game. At the age of 43, the way he performed both with the gloves and the bat was astonishing to see.
The best thing that Dhoni did was to come out to bat at number seven. While chasing 167, CSK were in a spot of bother at 111/5 in 15 overs. Then, the CSK skipper came out and stitched an unbeaten 57-run partnership with Shivam Dube. He remained not out on 26 (11), at a strike rate of 236.36, including four fours and one six.
“Good to win a game” – MS Dhoni
In the first innings, he was involved with a catch, a stumping, and a cheeky run-out. Due to this overall performance, he was deservingly named the Player of the Match. After today’s three dismissals, Dhoni also became the first wicketkeeper in IPL history to manage 200 dismissals.
During the post-match presentation, Dhoni said: “Good to win a game, unfortunately the games haven’t gone our way, it gives a lot of confidence to the team. It was a tough game, glad to be on the winning side and hopefully it gives us momentum. We were struggling in the first six overs in previous games when bowling but then come back in the middle overs … we were not getting the kind of the start also as a batting unit … maybe it was because of the Chennai wicket … maybe we will do better on better wickets, give the batters more confidence.”