Legendary Indian cricketers Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni are not close friends as per the former. That, however, doesn’t stop him from intending to play golf with the Chennai Super Kings captain. Having played as many as 273 international matches with him across formats, Yuvraj expressed an intention of participating in a round of golf with Dhoni during his appearance on TRS Hindi earlier this month.
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Yuvraj’s “politically correct” response came at the behest of the host – who wanted the former cricketer to clear the air with respect to a media-fueled rift between him and Dhoni. Blaming different lifestyles, Yuvraj explained why the two have rarely been spotted together post a 13-year old association with the national team.
“And I wish him well. I’m sure he wishes me well. And someday we will get to play golf together. Because he plays and I play too. He’s retired. I have retired. And when we meet, we meet like friends only. We don’t meet like, ‘I don’t want to get to know you’. We shot an ad also together. We had a lot of fun talking about our past days,” Yuvraj remarked.
Since retiring from cricket over four years ago, Yuvraj taking refuge in golf is no longer a news. Having taken up the sport to kill time during the COVID-19 pandemic, the southpaw eventually developed a liking for it to an extent that he is often seen playing it in different parts of the world.
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Dhoni, who continues to participate in the Indian Premier League even more than three years after his international retirement, had played his maiden golf tournament a couple of months after his last match for India. Earlier this year, he was seen playing golf with former USA President Donald Trump.
In spite of disclosing how he and Dhoni don’t always remain in touch that much, Yuvraj was also reminiscent of being “hardcore professionals” during their playing days. Notwithstanding him sharing facts around how all teammates don’t get along off the field, Yuvraj acknowledged how Dhoni provided him clarity regarding the selection committee moving on from him before ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.
How MS Dhoni Played Dot Balls To Let Yuvraj Singh Complete Half-Century
Throwing more light on how they used to help each other in achieving personal milestones, Yuvraj reminded the listeners of the podcast of an instance where he, as an injured Dhoni’s runner, dived around to complete runs in order to allow him to reach to a three-figure mark.
Previously, Yuvraj had ran for most part of Dhoni’s 91* (106) in a 107-run sixth-wicket partnership alongside Dinesh Karthik (58*) to seal a 251-run chase against Bangladesh at the Shere Bangla National Stadium.
Dhoni, on the other hand, deliberately played four dot balls in a row to allow Yuvraj register a match-winning half-century in an ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 league match against Netherlands at the Feroz Shah Kotla. With the match all but won, the right-handed batter had even refused a single on the last ball of the penultimate over.
Readers must note that the incident had happened just over a year after Dhoni had kept strike despite Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar nearing a maiden ODI double century. Four years later, Dhoni had again played a dot ball to allow deputy Virat Kohli to hit the winning runs in ICC World Twenty20 2014 semi-final against South Africa.
