The Chennai Super Kings captain played his cards to perfection once again with an excellent field-change that resulted in the wicket of the KKR opener.
MS Dhoni once again brought all his game intelligence into play for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and helped create a dismissal out of nowhere. Standing behind the stumps, the legendary CSK skipper played his trick to perfection and gave his side a breakthrough in a league stage encounter of the IPL 2023 played on Sunday (April 23).
The batter at the receiving end of some Dhoni genius was Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) uncapped Indian batter N Jagadeesan, who ended up hitting the ball to the exact same fielder that the CSK captain had just moved from his original post.
The great wicketkeeper-batter could somehow foresee Jagadeeshan playing a stroke towards a catching man in the deep after removing the fielder from closer to the playing arena. As it happened, the ball from Tushar Deshpande took Jagadeeshan’s thick edge and flew straight into the hands of Ravindra Jadeja.
It was yet another example of MS Dhoni’s excellent game awareness and anticipation of the batter’s next move. Even though not directly involved with the action, be it with the bat or the ball, he could ensure in that moment that CSK had a fielder ready to pounce on the wicket-taking opportunity.
The incident is from just prior to the second ball of the second over in the KKR run-chase. Vying for an imposing target of 236, the home side had the Eden Gardens in Kolkata had no choice but to continue going after the bowling even as they lost an early wicket. Facing Deshpande inside the powerplay, Jagadeesan would’ve felt compelled to hit him away immediately.
Also Read – ‘Get vaccinated and join CSK:’ This is how Dhoni spotted this rare 17-year-old talent
As always, MS Dhoni could sense an opportunity there for CSK. He preempted the right-hander to go up and over for a boundary, with just two boundary riders in place. Jagadeesan went for an extravagant lofted cover drive, which he couldn’t execute as the ball from Deshapande swung away and took his outside edge.
MS Dhoni Just Moved Jadeja to wide third man and Jagadeeshan hits the very next Ball Straight to Jadeja. This what a captain loves when a Bowler executes it perfectly. pic.twitter.com/B2XVqzBUlh
— 🎰 (@StanMSD) April 24, 2023
Guess what, the outside edge flew straight to the deep-third region where Jadeja had been placed between the two deliveries by Dhoni. Jadeja was originally placed at the short-third but was asked move towards the ropes, while Dhoni placed a long-off to ensure he had some cover for the lofted stroke.
Luck smiled on him as the thick edge, which could easily have fallen anywhere else behind square, went straight to Jadeja’s hands and resulted in an important breakthrough for MS Dhoni’s men. They further tightened the screws on KKR and ultimately came out triumphant by a whopping 49 runs.
