Playing his 200th match as the skipper of the Chennai Super Kings tonight, Mahendra Singh Dhoni(32* off 17) had nearly provided his ever-loyal fans at the Chapauk Stadium with yet another memory they could have talked about the rest of their lives, but it was just not meant to be.
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During the seventeenth match of the ongoing 16th season of the IPL, CSK required another 21 runs to win off the final Over against the Rajasthan Royals, but despite being smashed a couple of Sixes by Dhoni in the Over, Sandeep Sharma managed to hold his nerve and nail the Yorker on the final delivery to hand his side a three-run victory.
En route the target of 176 runs, the ‘Yellow Army’ were struggling to keep up with the required run-rate during the latter half of their innings, with the equation consequently reading 54 runs required off the last three Overs, and as many as 40 runs off the last 12 deliveries.
However, it is not over until Dhoni is farming the crease, and credits to his partner Ravindra Jadeja (25* off 15) as well that they managed to somehow take the match to the final delivery, with some hefty blows during the final two Overs.
CSK vs RR Man of the Match 2023
Earlier, continuing with his good record against CSK, RR wicket-keeper batter Jos Buttler (52 off 36) scored yet another half-century, and paved the way for a strong foundation alongside Davdutt Padikkal (38 off 26) during the middle phase of the innings.
While they could not reach where they ideally might have ideally liked, a few blows by their Southpaw batter Shimron Hetmyer (30* off 18) took them to the total of 175/8 in their 20 Overs.
With considerable amount of dew during the Chennai chase, it were the RR spinners drying out the runs during the middle Overs which really helped them restrict MS Dhoni and co. to 172/6 in their 20 Overs.
For his stellar bowling figures of 4-0-25-2 at an economy rate of 6.2 runs per Over, and having played a handy innings (30 off 22) alongside Buttler earlier, Ravichandran Ashwin was awarded with the ‘Player of the Match’ award.
“Every batting innings, I am padded up from the start. It’s not an easy thing but it is good. I came off with good Test form. I feel I am able to get good grip and drop on the ball at the right lengths,” remarked Ashwin post winning the award.
