“183 I Made Here…”: MS Dhoni Recalls How Career-Best ODI Innings Gave Him a Year’s Cushion in International Cricket

Former India and current Chennai Super Kings captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni didn’t get to bat in Indian Premier League 2023 Match 37 against Rajasthan Royals but him playing a representative match in Jaipur brought back several memories both for him and his fans.

With CSK playing a match in the city for the first time in the last four years, a “sea of Yellow” was unsurprisingly spotted at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium primarily because of Dhoni. With his loyal fans not wanting to miss an opportunity of seeing him play in any capacity in what could be his last season of the IPL, the legendary cricketer acknowledged the same during the post-match presentation ceremony.

“I think they [fans] will be chasing me throughout [the season],” Dhoni told Star Sports Network upon realizing that he’ll be enjoying home support from the spectators irrespective of the city he plays in in this season.

Even RR captain Sanju Samson had admitted the visiting team’s fans outnumbering their fans at the toss. “Would love to see some pink here today but it’s yellow and we know what the reason is [smiles],” Samson had told Star Sports at the toss.

MS Dhoni Recalls Career-Best ODI Innings

Dhoni, who was wrong in storming on the ground to argue with the umpires during the last Rajasthan vs Chennai encounter at this venue, recollected playing a career-best knock for India here more than 18 years ago.

“This is a very special venue. My first ODI hundred in Vizag gave me 10 games but the 183 I made here [against Sri Lanka] gave me another one year [in international cricket]. It was great to be back here,” Dhoni mentioned.

Although Dhoni spoke in his usual humble manner, readers must note that there weren’t any questions on his role as a wicket-keeper batter back in the day. Before his aforementioned second ODI century, Dhoni had scored 563 runs across 20 ODI innings at an average and strike rate of 37.53 and 104.25 respectively including a century and two half-centuries.

All in all, Dhoni played a total of five ODIs throughout his international career at the SMS Stadium scoring 240 runs at an average and strike rate of 80 and 105.26 respectively.

Rajasthan Royals beat Chennai Super Kings for the second time in IPL 2023

Even though they could still face each other during the playoffs, IPL 2023 has seen Rajasthan successfully defending targets against Chennai twice.

Chasing what would’ve been a record T20 run-chase here, Super Kings fell short of a 203-run target by 32 runs tonight. Always covering up for a mediocre batting powerplay, Dhoni’s men needed to pull off something miraculous to avoid their third defeat of the season. That said, they are still at the third position on the points table on the back of five wins in the first half of the league stage.