The capacity crowd at the Chepauk Stadium gathered on Wednesday night witnessed a MS Dhoni special with the Chennai Super Kings captain producing a breathtaking finish as he nearly took his team over the line in a last-ball thriller against Rajasthan Royals in an IPL 2023 clash. Chasing 176, Dhoni struck an unbeaten 32 off 17, an innings laced with one four and three sixes but CSK finished four runs short of the target.
When Dhoni walked in to bat, CSK needed 63 to win off 30 deliveries. A couple of tight overs from Ravichanran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal left CSK with 54 to win off three overs.
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Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja then began their show with the pair hitting 33 runs off the next two overs.
With 21 needed from the final over, Dhoni launched two powerful hits over the boundary for as many sixes before Sandeep Sharma held his nerves to ensure just three off his remaining three deliveries.
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At the post-match presentation, RR captain Sanju Samson admitted he never felt the game was in his team’s grasp because of Dhoni’s presence.
“Last two overs were tensed, I tried to push it deep but you are never safe with that guy,” Samson said.
And then the presenter Sanjay Manjrekar asked Samson if he has any data on how to tackle Dhoni.
“Nothing. Nothing works,” a smiling Samson responded.
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Dhoni put the blame for the close defeat on his batters for not being able to rotate the strike more in the middle overs.
“I think in the middle overs we needed a bit more strike rotation, there wasn’t much for the spinners but they had experienced spinners and we could not rotate strike. It was not that difficult and the ownership (for the defeat) should come from the batters,” Dhoni told the broadcasters after the match.
CSK will face Royal Challengers Bangalore at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on April 17.
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