Lucknow: Chennai Super Kings batter MS Dhoni plays a shot 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)
At 42, Chennai Super Kings wicket-keeper batter MS Dhoni continues to break the records in the Indian Premier League. Though he is not at the peak of his powers the CSK talisman continues to leave his fans in awe reinventing himself time and again and adapting to the modern game.
During the side’s clash against Lucknow Super Giants on Friday, with his blistering nine-ball 28 Dhoni became the first player as a wicket-keeper-batter in the tournament’s history to score 5000 runs.
Resurgence this season
The prodigal son of Chennai has looked as good and lethal as ever in the final overs despite there having been doubts and issues with his knee fitness this season. The momentum his cameos have been injecting for CSK in the final overs has been invaluable.
So far in the tournament, he has been striking at 255.88 which is way higher than his overall IPL career strike rate of 137. His four-ball 20-run cameo was essentially the margin with which CSK got over the line in IPL’s El-Classico against the Mumbai Indians.
Why can’t he bat higher?
After the game against LSG on Friday Head Coach Stephen Fleming would reason why they have been not using Dhoni up the order despite him striking the ball as cleanly as anyone in the tournament.
“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,” 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
He would also say “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.”
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First uploaded on: 20-04-2024 at 14:23 IST
