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MS Dhoni created history in the Indian Premier League (IPL) showdown between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Chepauk stadium on Wednesday (April 12). The legendary Dhoni became the first player in the history of glitzy league to captain a franchise in 200 matches.
Dhoni received a special ‘Thala 200’ memento ahead of the match against RR at Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium. On Dhoni's special day, N Srinivasan, former chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC), former president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) presented Dhoni with ‘Thala 200’ memento.
While reminiscing his IPL journey with the four-time champions CSK, Dhoni express his gratefulness towards his franchise and shared his 13 years of experience since the inaugural season in 2008.
"There is always a curiosity to know how a franchise operates. It is a completely new environment. It was also the first time that you were going to share the dressing room with foreign players. And you did not know how they were," Dhoni said.
Dhoni also admitted that initially he was scared of Matthew Hayden in the first edition of the glitzy league as he thought the star Australian batter would come and start abusing left right and centre going by the image he has in international cricket.
"Take Matthew Hayden for example, we always thought that he would come and start abusing left right and centre. But it was very interesting that before our first match against Kings XI Punjab, Matthew Hayden took the initiative in the team meeting while discussing strategy. The first thing he said was that he would take Brett Lee on. I did not understand a lot at the time and asked what did he mean. Hayden said that I would walk down the track and meet Brett Lee halfway. On the next day, he repeated the exact thing in the first or second ball of the game. That was the kind of approach he had. So it was very interesting," Dhoni said of Hayden.
"I wanted to take a risk by going into the auction. The three (2) teams that did not have a marquee player, even if 2 out of them were interested, along with other franchise, there was a chance of getting a huge payday," the 41-year-old said.
"When the auction happened, I went for $1.5 million, and that was the thinking at that time," Dhoni signed off.
Dhoni has propelled CSK to the playoffs 11 times out of his 13 IPL seasons for the franchise. In total Dhoni has featured in 213 matches as the captain of an IPL team. The four-time champions CSK have featured in IPL final nine times under Dhoni's captaincy.
Talking about Dhoni's captaincy track-record for CSK before clash against RR, he has won 120 matches for CSK in a total of 199 matches as CSK skipper with a winning percentage of an incredible 60.61 per cent.
In total Dhoni has played 213 IPL matches as skipper while featuring for CSK and Rising Pune Supergiants IPL. Dhoni has a winning percentage of 58.96 in those 213 IPL matches as he has clinched victories in 125 matches and has suffered defeats in 87 of them.
Recently in the ongoing IPL's season Dhoni achieved a rare feat of completing 5000 runs. Dhoni, who made his IPL debut in 2008 against King XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) back in 2008, Dhoni joined the elite list of batting juggernauts AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Warner, Rohit Sharma and Raina.
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