On Thursday, 21 April 2022, MS Dhoni played a key role in Chennai Super Kings’ 3-wicket win against Mumbai Indians in IPL. He hit a four off the last ball of the match. Captain Ravindra Jadeja was seen bowing to MS Dhoni after the thrilling win. Ambati Rayudu also thanked Dhoni after the match.
In the match played at DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai, Chennai Super Kings won the toss and elected to bowl. Mumbai Indians got off to a bad start. Rohit Sharma could not open the account. Mumbai lost 5 wickets for 85 runs in 13.3 overs. After this, thanks to Tilak Verma’s unbeaten 51 and Hrithik Shokin’s 25-ball 25, Mumbai Indians managed to reach 150.
He scored 155 for 7 in 20 overs. Chasing the target, the score of Chennai Super Kings was 139 runs for 7 wickets in 19.1 overs. He needed to score 17 runs in the last 5 balls to win. Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Dwayne Bravo were at the crease.
After this Dhoni played the role of ‘finisher’ well. Dhoni hit a six off the third ball of Jaydev Unadkat and a four off the fourth ball. He remained calm and off the last ball he hit the winning boundary at short fine leg.
Chennai Super Kings have won only two out of 7 matches so far. Jadeja said after the match, ‘It is great that he is still hungry (for no more wins). His rhythm continues to this day. Seeing this, we stay calm, because we know that if he is at the crease till the last over, he will win for us.
He said, ‘We were tense but we were confident that he (Dhoni) are present at the crease. He will make a successful end to the match. He has won many matches for India and in IPL. We knew that he would make a successful end to the match. He (Dhoni) showed the world that he is still here and can finish the game.
Jadeja said, ‘Look at the way the match was progressing, we were under pressure. There was pressure on both the teams as the best finisher in the world was at the crease. But we knew that if he (Dhoni) stays till the last ball, we will win the match. We were confident that he would not miss the last two-three balls and luckily it happened.
Jadeja He also praised fast bowler Mukesh Chaudhary. Mukesh played a key role in faltering Mumbai’s top order. “When he (Chowdhary) was a net bowler with us, we saw that he was bowling well and swinging the ball. He has a good skill of swinging the new ball and that’s why we kept him in the team. We had faith in him that he would take the wicket. He bowled well and took wickets.
Jadeja said about Ambati Rayudu and Dwayne Bravo, ‘We have a lot of experience, so they (Rayudu and Bravo) know when and what to perform. So even if we’re not winning the game, we still look calm and relaxed. I don’t take fielding lightly. Still I work on it. We need to do some work on our fielding and take catches because we can’t keep dropping catches every game.