Former India player turned veteran commentator Irfan Pathan has raised questions on MS Dhoni’s intent as he denied the single and gave the strike to Daryl Mitchell in the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) IPL 2024 match against the Punjab Kings (PBKS). However, Dhoni scored 14 runs off 11 balls as CSK set PBKS a 163-run target in Chennai on Wednesday, May 1. PBKS chased the target down with seven wickets and 13 deliveries in hand to climb into seventh position on the points table as well.

During a discussion on Star Sports, Irfan Pathan said, “You will definitely talk about the six since MS Dhoni has a huge fan following. People love him a lot. However, the sort of knock he played, more was expected from him,” he said. “He shouldn’t have done that (refusing a single). This is a team game. Don’t do that in a team game. The other guy is also an international player. If he had been a bowler, I would have understood it for sure. You have done that with (Ravindra) Jadeja and with Mitchell as well. You don’t need to do that. He could have avoided it.”

However, MS Dhoni hit the third ball of the final over bowled by Arshdeep Singh to long-off as well. He also asked Mitchell to return to the non-striker’s end after he had reached the striker’s end for a single as well. Dhoni then hit a six off the penultimate ball and got out while trying to take a second run off the final ball as well.

“Curran getting a spinner to bowl the 19th over was a masterstroke because considering the form MS Dhoni is in, he could have taken the game way forward in those two overs. He could have scored 30 runs in two overs but they didn’t allow him to do that,” Irfan Pathan concluded. “You bowled to him with excellent planning. Although a six was hit for sure in Arshdeep’s over, he also bowled well. He (Dhoni) has been unable to score runs against spinners in the last few years, which is why he is bringing himself down the order. He is scoring runs in the last over when the fast bowlers are thinking of bowling yorkers.”