In the 17th match of the IPL 2023, played on April 12 at Chepauk, Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) almost beat Rajasthan Royals (RR) in a dramatic way. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the captain of CSK, played until the last over. He needed 5 runs from the last delivery to win the game, but he couldn’t hit the ball to the boundary, so Sanju Samson and the rest of his team won by 3 runs.
After the game, the CSK coach, Stephen Fleming, said that Dhoni had hurt his knee. He went on to say that Dhoni has always worked out like a pro. The former captain of India looked like he was in great shape as he hit some of his famous sixes, especially against spinners. Notably, he scored 32 runs off of 17 balls and made a big partnership with Ravindra Jadeja, who got 25 runs off of 15 balls.
“He’s tough. He is still recovering from a knee injury, which you can see in the way he moves. This is making it harder for him to do some things. Still a great player for us, as you saw on Wednesday. He has always worked hard at his health. He joins the team months before the event starts, so he doesn’t get to do much. “He does some netting in Ranchi to stay fit, but his main pre-season is a month before he comes to Chennai,” Fleming said at a press conference after the match.
The former captain of New Zealand also said that MS Dhoni will still play well once he gets back into shape. He also said that the company doesn’t worry about how Dhoni controls himself because he always speeds up.
“He is getting back into match shape, and he is still playing pretty well. We never worry about how he takes care of himself. “He’s always up to speed,” Fleming added.
In a last-ball battle, RR beat CSK by 3 runs.
CSK won the coin toss and decided to field first. RR was limited to 175 runs by the home team. Akash Singh, Tushar Deshpande, Ravindra Jadeja, and Moeen Ali each took two wickets, and Moeen Ali took one.
During the chase, CSK lost wickets early on, but Devon Conway was able to get to 50. In the final over, when CSK needed 21 runs off of the last six balls, Dhoni was able to hit two sixes off of Sandeep Sharma. But the bowler came back and helped his team beat the four-time winners by three runs.
