The prowess of MS Dhoni’s astute cricketing brain was once again on display when he devised a perfect strategy to get rid of the Mumbai Indians (MI) captain, Rohit Sharma, on Saturday in Delhi.
Chasing a target of 219, MI had got off to a blazing start from Rohit and Quinton de Kock with 68/0 in 7 overs. MS Dhoni took the strategic time-out after the 7th over, and then brought Shardul Thakur into the attack for the 8th over.
Thakur struck on his 4th ball with the big scalp of Rohit Sharma, who holed out to Ruturaj Gaikwad at sweeper cover while mistiming a big loft on the offside.
t was later revealed in the video that the mastermind Chennai Super Kings skipper had himself decided to place the fielder at that specific position; MS Dhoni had also indicated Gaikwad to be ready for the ball coming towards him. And it did – once again, even while his batting is on the wane, MS Dhoni’s sharp brain continued to be at the elite level.
Watch the video here:
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The bowlers would execute better and learn from this: MS Dhoni
While Thakur got rid of the Mumbai skipper, he had a forgettable night thereafter as he went on to concede 56 runs in the game; Lungi Ngidi had the worst figures on the night with 0/62 as Kieron Pollard played a blinder of an innings to take Mumbai Indians home on the last ball of the game.
MS Dhoni, after the loss, wasn’t too critical of the bowlers as the pitch in Delhi was an absolute batting paradise. He, however, lamented the dropped catches – Gaikwad and Thakur dropped one difficult chance each, while Faf du Plessis gave Pollard a reprieve.
CSK continue to remain at the top of the table after their 5-match winning streak came to an end on Saturday. They will next meet the Rajasthan Royals on Wednesday.
“It was a brilliant wicket. The difference was the execution. Not being too tough on bowlers, we dropped catches at crucial intervals. The bowlers would execute better and learn from this.
‘If you look how it went. we were very off target when it came to execution. It is important to do that. The wicket was easy to hit,” MS Dhoni said at the post-match presentation.
“In a tournament like this, you will win and lose a few close games. When you are under the pump, you learn a lot. Irrespective where we are in the points table, we take one game at a time. We hardly ever focus where we are standing on the table. That has been our good point along the way,” he added.
