Lucknow: Chennai Super Kings batter MS Dhoni in action during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 T20 cricket match between Chennai Super Kings and Lucknow Super Giants at Ekana Cricket Stadium, in Lucknow, Friday, April 19, 2024. (PTI Photo/Manvender Vashist Lav)
On Friday the sea of yellow in Lucknow during the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) vs Chennai Super Kings (CSK) clash were waiting for MS Dhoni to make his appearance to play his trademark cameo which he has made a habit of doing time and again this season. And the crowd got their wish as the CSK keeper came in and smacked nine-ball 28 which raised the decibels in the ground.
Despite looking flawless with his power-hitting game CSK has refrained from promoting the 42-year-old up the batting order.”I think everyone wants to see him for longer as we do but that amount of time is about right. We need him for the tournament and that 2-3 over cameo he is owning that space,” Head coach Stephen Fleming would reason after the game.
“Other years he has obviously had problems with his knee and he is sort of recovering from that which is why there is only a certain amount of balls he can function well.” Fleming would add. Against Mumbai Indians in the final over Dhoni made 20 runs in just four balls pummeling Mumbai Indian skipper Hardik Pandya for monstrous sixes which ended up as the margin with which CSK would win eventually
“It’s inspirational, isn’t it? His batting this year even in training has been very crisp. The team isn’t surprised with what he is doing because his skill level during the pre-season was very high,” Fleming would further add. “It’s up to the rest of the batting unit to get us to a good position where he can push us over the top. He is doing that pretty much every time at the moment which is great to watch,”.
The cameo wasn’t enough
At the halfway point against LSG Dhoni’s cameo felt like might be just enough to take them over the line however, home team openers KL Rahul and Quinton De Kock put up a 134-run opening stand chasing 177 runs which essentially broke the back of the chase. With the defeat, CSK are placed on third with four wins and three defeats.
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First uploaded on: 20-04-2024 at 12:19 IST
