MS Dhoni, The Great Finisher Takes The Charge, CSK Beats MI!
Cricket buffs are overwhelmed as CSK successfully beat MI in Match 33, and the victory has appeared with another calm under pressure effort by MS Dhoni, the former Indian skipper. Dhoni is famous for his professional approach of grabbing the matches in the pocket; even the nail-biting scenario hovers the stadium round, he has remained consistently dependable in the middle order. Today’s 28 runs out of 13 balls is unique because it allows millions of spectators to retrospect that old long-haired boy, now a 40-years-old star, glowing in his way repeatedly.
CSK, after winning the toss, decided to bowl first and MI, after twenty overs of batting, set a chaseable target of 155, with a 7.8 run rate per over. Though the target does not look beyond chase in the second innings, the result was hard to guess. This year, the first four matches of CSK have rendered the worst start ever. Their consequent losses were being criticized, noting that they have a history of making unbelievable comebacks after the back of back losses. After the worst start ever, today’s run chase has brought them the second win!
On the very first over, the start was not good for CSK. Rituraj Gaikwad went for a duck as he tried to cut Daniel Sams and mistimed to be caught by Varma. Santner played well in the couple of overs in the middle but was eventually dismissed. The fourth over saw Rayadu playing a well-timed controlled shot against Bumrah, a pull-through deep backward square leg. On the fifth over, Uthappa – who’s regularly playing effective innings, hammered two back-to-back boundaries against Meredith, and both were front foot drives against outswingers. The next over found an over-boundary by him. It was flying over long-on. The seventh and eighth over were more or less barren except for one maximum hit by Uthappa, making an outside off-break length ball fly in a lofted front foot drive.
Rayadu and Uthappa looked great, but Uthappa was dismissed as he was front pulling Unadkat. He was mistimed for being caught deep backward square leg. Then it was Dube – driving without footwork with immense power drawn from his back arm. These overs were not highly fruitful for CSK; Rayadu was pulling one Sams-off cutter over deep mid-wicket on the thirteenth over. Dube was, however, caught after an outside edge on the fifth ball of the over.
CSK, as it seemed, was gradually losing the match from their grip, consequent fall of wickets making the score much harder to chase. Finally, on the eighteenth over – the situation started being better. An over-boundary followed by a boundary on this over started getting relief for CSK. But, again, Pretorius and Dhoni were in charge; they mainly rotated the strike but often made big hits on the loose ball.
As Pretorius was out on the last over, Dhoni started making all his fans time travel in his old days. After a back-foot drive that brought six more runs, he waited for none; but pulled Unadkat just on the subsequent ball through fine leg boundary, all the way to four. He finished in style on the final delivery of the match; a splendid slog to an Unadkat foot toss brought a second win for CSK.
CSK players are a favourite of fantasy cricket players. Fantasy cricket allows millions of cricket buffs worldwide to anticipate and create teams of their own in relation to actual matches. For example, Dhoni will never be irrelevant to your team despite his previous performance, but today’s match shows why he deserves to be a part of your team. Therefore, creating a team in fantasy cricket sports is not easy but requires the vigilance of the actual matches and various critical skills.
