IPL 2018
IPL 2018: The signature MS Dhoni six
By B Dixit - May 21, 2018 1:53 am
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During the 56th match of the 11th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) at Pune, Chennai Super Kings’ MS Dhoni sealed the chase for his team by hitting a six in the last over of the match.

After Dhoni won the toss and put the visitors in to bat, Kings XI Punjab struggled in the initial phase of the innings. Karun Nair’s 10th IPL half-century saw Kings XI score 153-10 in 19.4 overs. Lungi Ngidi’s career-best T20 bowling figures dominated Kings XI’s batting line-up to the fullest.

Dhoni collecting the stumps after hitting the winning shot.

In the second innings, Chennai Super Kings were seen making some unusual batting decisions, sending in Harbhajan Singh and Deepak Chahar at No. 5 and No. 6 respectively. However, with Suresh Raina scoring an unbeaten half-century at the other end, Chennai ended up scoring 159-5 in 19.1 overs.

During the post-match presentation, Dhoni also revealed the reason that why he decided to change the batting order. It was his masterstroke when the team was in danger as that decision was taken to destroy the opponent bowlers’ line and lengths.

Dhoni spoke on that, “If you see their bowling line-up, it was definitely swinging a bit more for Ankit. From a captain’s perspective, you want to take as many wickets upfront. So sending in Bhajji and Chahar creates chaos. The bowlers all of a sudden bowl yorkers and bouncers. When batsmen are batting, they stick to a good line and length, but against Bhajji and Chahar, they lose their line and lengths, instead of sticking to the plan. Plus Bhajji and Chahar could come in handy during the playoffs.”

Chennai needed 1 run to win the match in the last over. Ravichandran Ashwin had called his fielders up in the circle. Mohit Sharma bowled a short ball which was pulled by Dhoni into the stands towards the square leg region. Dhoni ended up scoring 16* (7) with the help of one four and one six.

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