Sending the Chennai Super Kings in to bat on winning the toss in Match 49 of IPL 2024 turned out to be quite constructive for the Punjab Kings in a not-so-constructive season for the visitors so far. For CSK, their innings didn’t quite boast of any astounding performances other than a captain’s knock played by skipper, Ruturaj Gaikwad, whose 48-ball 62-run knock helped keep CSK in the fray for the most part of the innings, in addition to him reclaiming the Orange Cap for the time being.
Right from Ajinkya Rahane who could never really get going (29 off 24) to Impact Player, Sameer Rizvi, not at all living up to the tag in his struggling innings of 21 (23), the home team could never really break free and provide any impetus to their innings, courtesy of Harpeet Brar and Rahul Chahar, who put the brakes on CSK by scalping four and not giving away a single boundary in their collective spell.
Even the icon, MS Dhoni, couldn’t express himself to his fullest. The ex-Indian captain and former CSK skipper came out to bat in the latter phase of the 18th over but didn’t look anywhere near the explosive best he’s been during the current season, decimating opposition bowlers left, right & centre. The gutsy call of bringing on Chahar to bowl the penultimate over of the innings worked wonders as he was victorious in not conceding a single boundary in the four deliveries he bowled to Dhoni.
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With Arshdeep Singh bowling the last over and Dhoni being on strike since the first ball, the first three balls were a wide, boundary (Dhoni’s first four), dot ball and another wide. A bizarre moment ensued as Dhoni hit, rather sliced, the re-bowled third delivery, a low full-toss, to deep cover. Daryl Mitchell, running as hard as he could, would probably have thought of a double. However, Dhoni had other ideas as he just stood in his crease, which virtually meant Mitchell, who was not really aware of Dhoni’s intentions, arrived at the striker’s end, tapped his bat, and ran back to the non-striker’s end, where a direct-hit couldn’t be affected, nor did Arshdeep make the slightest of efforts to position his hands anywhere near the rocketing throw.
Here’s MS Dhoni sending Daryl Mitchell back during CSK vs PBKS:
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