Ambati Rayudu, who had hit three consecutive sixes off Sandeep Sharma in the previous over and was scoring at a strike rate of 200 was walking back to the pavilion. In the context of the game, that was a humongous moment, perhaps even a match-turning one but for the Wankhede crowd, Rayudu’s exit mattered little. As they were more interested in the man making his way into the centre.
Familiar ‘Dhoni! Dhoni!’ chants gripped the entire stadium as MS Dhoni walked out to bat in the 18th over of the CSK vs PBKS match on Monday. CSK had a daunting task of scoring 35 off 13 balls but the crowd had their hopes pinned on the former CSK skipper. And why wouldn’t they, a few nights ago Dhoni had snatched victory for CSK when 16 runs were required off 4 deliveries.
Dhoni hit a six and a four but did not manage to cast his spell on the match this time. He was dismissed by Rishi Dhawan in the last over and CSK lost the match by 11 runs.
PBKS pacer Kagiso Rabada hailed Dhawan for delivering under pressure in front of someone like Dhoni who had the full backing of the crowd.
“I think we bowled really well. Still a bit nerve-wracking when you are bowling at MS Dhoni and there is not one red shirt in the crowd, only yellow shirts chanting his name. He held his nerve, credit to him,” Rabada said at the post-match presentation.
