Punjab Kings were appreciated for foxing MS Dhoni with a dose of ‘his own medicine’.
After going unbeaten for seven straight games, MS Dhoni has been dismissed twice in two matches. But even as the world gets closer to seeing the last of the legendary Dhoni, the whole thing fails to go down without its bunch of surprises. Contrary to the public demand, Dhoni is not coming to bat higher. Be it because of his physical limitations or reasons only he is aware of, Dhoni has stuck to batting lower down. And while it’s debatable whether the decision has worked in Chennai Super Kings’ favour – they lost five matches in a row after starting off well – the prospects of Dhoni batting higher is something that was always relished, even during his India playing days.
MS Dhoni is castled for a duck(PTI)
While Dhoni has flourished at No. 7, he was in for the unexpected when the former CSK captain, batting in the 19th over last Wednesday, faced leg-spinner Rahul Chahar. Now Dhoni’s restriction of cutting loose against spinners is well-documented in the past with Gautam Gambhir first exposing it back in 2016. And although Sam Curran did not fox Dhoni with a packed field placement, he and Chahar managed to keep him quiet, giving just three runs off the penultimate over.
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Looking back at Curran’s tactics, former India batter Navjot Sidhu hailed the Punjab Kings’ stand-in captain for his ‘master stroke’. Sidhu credited the England all-rounder for studying and implementing something no other captain could – Dhoni’s lack of practice against spin.
“They got done in by something unexpected. They used Dhoni’s own medicine against him to fool him. Look at Dhoni’s practice. He always smashes those long hits in the nets against fast bowlers. He hasn’t practiced spin. In the entire tournament, if Dhoni has played 6 overs, they’ve all been against pace. But Punjab’s captain [Sam Curran] played a master stroke. He employed a spinner,” Sidhu said on Star Sports.
“Dhoni wasn’t prepared. For 7-8 months, he hasn’t faced spin. It was almost as if he was startled. Tactic is like how you take the stinger out of the bee without getting stung. And that is where the game turned. And on top of it, Harpreet Brar bowled a faster one to Shivam Dube. Cannoned onto the stumps.”
Dhoni, CSK exact revenge
Brar finished with 2/17 as Punjab Kings picked up their fifth consecutive win over CSK last week. However, on Sunday, CSK evened the odds and exacted revenge, beating PBKS in their own den of the HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala, where Dhoni pulled off another surprise. For the first time in his IPL career, Dhoni walked out to bat No. 9, only to get bowled for a first-ball duck. Dhoni failed to read a perfect slower ball yorker that castled into his stumps. Dhoni’s move wasn’t well received by some of the legends of Indian cricket, but irrespective, CSK got the result they wanted and completed a 28-run win to jump to third on the points table.
Dhoni, with 110 runs from 11 matches at an average of 55 and a strike rate in excess of 224, has already bettered his tally from last season and with at least three more games to play, is likely to end his IPL career on a high.
