Watch: How Sikandar Raza foiled Dhoni’s plan off the last ball in CSK-PBKS tie. Cricket
If M S Dhoni A master at finishing off the last over with the bat, a glimpse of which was seen at Chepauk on Sunday, he is also a master tactician when it comes to defending runs in the death overs. He knows when and how to field which bowler. At times, Dhoni has also warned fielders about a possible catch, as seen throughout his career. Experience and sheer cricketing intelligence have gone a long way for Dhoni in this aspect. But on Sunday, even though he changed fielding positions for a few, warning outfielders to sprint quickly, he was dismissed by Sikandar Raza on the last ball of a dramatic target chase for the Punjab Kings, which eventually win record against Chennai Super Kings,
Chepauk has rarely been silenced in the IPL. And with a target of 201 runs on the board for the visiting side, Punjab Kings, and with master strategist MS Dhoni in the field and at his best, Chennai Super Kings fans expected the best. But Punjab had plans of its own.
Shikhar Dhawan and Prabhsimran Singh got the visitors off to a brisk start in the powerplay and later picked up the pace after the captain’s dismissal. CSK bounced back as Dhoni deployed his spin unit to bowl in tandem with the slower wickets. The plan worked impressively for Chennai before Liam Livingstone and Sam Curran attacked after being dismissed for the second time.
CSK struck back with crucial wickets and then found themselves lucky to dismiss the dangerous-looking Jitesh Sharma as Rashid pulled off an inch-perfect catch, leaving Punjab to chase down nine runs in the last over against Matisha Pathirana .
Baby Malinga looked just as dangerous as the original version as he conceded only two runs off the last three balls. Raza managed to take two singles in the next two deliveries and reduced the equation from one to three.
The Chepauk crowd looked tense but had faith in Dhoni. The skipper looked calm as he signaled deep on the off side to the outfielder to try hard to rule out a Super Over scenario. Some fielding changes were also made by Dhoni with sweeper cover and long-off in and three down the leg side. Meanwhile, confusion prevailed among the PBKS batsmen as there were signals from the dug out to retire one of the batsmen so that a fielder could be run in for singles.
Eventually it was settled and no changes were made as Raza braced for the last ball. Pathirana slowed down and hit the stumps as Raza edged and helped it over backward square leg. The shot was not hard enough and hence Raza ran for runs while Teekshana was chasing for the ball. The boundary was stopped, but by the time the ball was thrown back to Dhoni, PBKS had completed the chase.
Watch the video below…
Chennai have never lost an afternoon game at Chepauk in IPL history with a 7 out of 7 record. But PBKS’ victory ensured the end of that streak. Punjab became the first visiting team to beat Chennai after the hosts scored 200 or more runs at the venue.
