It has become a common sight post each Chennai Super Kings match in recent years for players from the opposition team to swarm around Mahendra Singh Dhoni to have some quality conversation or two with him in the limited available time. A role model in the real sense of the team, Dhoni’s words of wisdom are certainly nothing less than gold dust with him having entered into the final phase of his career now.
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Maintaining a calm and sedate persona during his entire career spanning nearly two decades now, the 41-year-old could easily come up with a couple of master classes on how to soak in all the hateful comments and ounces of negativity that comes one’s way in this day and age of social media.
He did, however, had come up with an invaluable suggestion for India and Royal Challengers Bangalore pacer Mohammed Siraj when he got a maiden call-up to the Indian cricket team in November 2017.
Mohammed Siraj Once Revealed How MS Dhoni’s Advise Helped Him Deal Against Hateful Trolls
During a conversation with actor/comedian Danish Sait in the RCB podcast last year, Siraj had opened up on his mental state upon seeing the vicious, hateful messages which had come his way post one of IPL 2018 matches against Kolkata Knight Riders.
Post describing the same, the 29-year-old made sure to highlight how he would then remember those golden words from Dhoni advising him to never pay heed to the positive or negative opinions coming his way from cricket fans.
“2018 me jab RCB aur KKR ka match tha, tab maine do beamer daala tha. To logon ne yeh bol diya tha ki ‘Bas, ab tu cricket chodh de, jaa baap ke saath auto chala’. Matlab, first time jab main India team me select hua tha to Mahi bhai ne yahi bola tha ki kabhi logon ki baaton me nahi aana. Tu aaj achcha karega to duniya tere saath rahegi, jab tu kharaab karega, yahi duniya gaali degi [During a match in 2018 against KKR, I had bowled two beamers. Then people had remarked, ‘Cricket is not your thing, go and run the auto rickshaw along with your dad’. When I had been selected to represent team India, Mahi bhai had suggested me to never pay attention to what people had to say. You do well today and they’ll stand by your side, when you won’t the very lot will swear at you].”
RCB vs KKR IPL 2019 Match
It was, in fact, the 2019 edition of the IPL which Siraj was referring to. He was handed the ball with KKR requiring another 53 runs in three overs to win the contest. Having bowled a waist height no-ball earlier in the innings, the Hyderabad pacer bowled another beamer to Andre Russell (48*) which went for a six.
As informed by the umpire, the speedster was ineligible to complete the rest of the over. Marcus Stoinis then completed the same and conceded two sixes to bring KKR right back into the contest. Siraj registered poor bowling figures of 2.2-0-36-0 during the run-chase.
With Russell smoking Tim Southee (0/61) for 29 runs in the penultimate over, it turned out to be a walk in the park for Kolkata in the end as they chased down a 206-run target with five balls to spare.
