The vintage MS Dhoni once again made everyone skip a heartbeat when he unleashed the beast in him in the thrilling contest against Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Chepauk stadium on Wednesday (April 12). Dhoni rolled back the time and gave his fans a glimpse of his old cricketing days which saw the legendary wicketkeeper-batter snatch the game from his opponent from an impossible position. But this time around, Dhoni couldn't win the match but yet again won umpteen hearts as CSK lost the match to RR in a cracker of a contest.
It all came down to 21 off the last six balls for CSK who were chasing a competitive target of 176. This time Dhoni was facing Sandeep Sharma, who was unsold at the IPL 2023 auction and was roped in by RR as Prasidh Krishna's replacement. The fast bowler, who is no stranger to the death overs, had a shaky start to the final over with Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja as he bowled a couple of wides. Things worsened when Dhoni banged him for two sixes. But the 29-year-old held his nerves to bowl three good balls to help Sanju Samson-led side win the match by just three runs.
"I backed my strength of executing the yorkers. I have been bowling the yorkers well in the nets. One side of the ground was bigger so I decided to bowl a yorker on the heels (of MS Dhoni) but it turned out to be low full tosses and both were hit for sixes. After that, I changed my plan and went around the wicket to change the angle and it's great it gave me a different result," he said after the match.
Meanwhile, Sandeep revealed the last over masterplan against the mighty Dhoni after already being slogged for two sixes which brought the equation to 7 runs of the last three balls.
"I bowled over the wicket to Jaddu bhai (Jadeja). The idea was to pitch it out of his reach. He had hit two sixes off Jason Holder. So I thought of getting the ball away from his reach. For Mahi bhai, my plan was to change the angle as I had already conceded two sixes by bowling over the wicket into his heels. I wanted to bowl it wide from a different angle," Sandeep concluded.
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