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On March 31, 2022, Mahendra Singh Dhoni did something which he has never done in his long Indian Premier League (IPL) career so far. Dhoni, who is known for finishing the innings with a six, had never hit a six off the first ball of his innings. Against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), when CSK needed to finish with a flourish, he hit a six off Avesh Khan to start his inning in style.
Dhoni walked out at no.7 in the penultimate over of CSK’s innings. He started off with a six over extra cover. The next ball he faced, the wicketkeeper-batter guided it past the backward point fielder for a boundary. Avesh came back well in his last over as he bowled to consecutive dot balls to the former CSK skipper, beating him with the change of pace.
In the last over bowled by Andrew Tye, Dhoni got the strike off the penultimate delivery. He scored a couple of runs off the fifth ball of the over. On the last ball, Dhoni did not try to overhit the ball and guided it towards backward point for a boundary. He remained unbeaten for 16 off six deliveries and helped CSK post 210/7 at Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai.
Dhoni enters elite list
With the 16-run cameo, the 40-year-old also joined the elite list of Indian T20 batters. He became the fifth Indian batter after Virat Kohli (10,326 runs), Rohit Sharma (9,936 runs), Shikhar Dhawan (8,818 runs), Robin Uthappa (7,070 runs) to score 7,000 or more runs in the format.
Playing under Ravindra Jadeja, in the first match of the season against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Dhoni ended his half-century drought. Dhoni’s unbeaten 50-run knock helped CSK recover from a batting collapse and help them post a respectable total. It was Dhoni’s first half-century after 28 IPL innings. He had not scored a single half-century in last two IPL seasons. In IPL 2021, Dhoni led CSK to their fourth title but was unimpressive with the bat as his highest score of the season was unbeaten 18.
For the clash against KL Rahul-led CSK, Jadeja made a few changes to the side. Devon Conway, Mitchell Santner and Adam Milne were replaced by Moeen Ali, Dwaine Pretorius and Mukesh Chaudhary respectivey. Out of the three changes, two players made their IPL debut. Also, CSK went into the LSG clash with three overseas players.
