The 'Dhoni Dhoni' chants reached to such extent that the skipper was left anxious and perplexed about things before needing to turn up the speaker's volume himself.
In the twilight of his illustrious career, MS Dhoni seems to have garnered an even greater and passionate fan following. The legendary Chennai Super Kings (CSK) skipper and wicketkeeper-batter has had a real buzz backing each of his steps and on-field actions in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
With fans recognising there isn’t much game time left in the great man’s tank, there has been a concentrated effort by the Indian crowds to capture every moment that the great Indian cricketer spends on the park, especially in CSK’s den – the iconic MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, aka Chepauk.
The loudest cheers for the legend have been reserved at Chepauk this summer in IPL 2023. With good reason, as MS Dhoni indicated he wishes to end his competitive cricket career at the fag end of this tournament in front of the city, which has adopted him gleefully over the years and forged an incredible association with the Jharkhand lad.
A strong example of Chepauk’s amazing ‘Dhoni love’ was seen at the latest CSK league game played on Sunday (May 14) where the four-time champions hosted the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in a rare home defeat.
Following the result, as the captain came out for the customary post-match losing skipper’s chat with the commentators, the cheers were so loud that MS Dhoni had to interrupt his chat with Simon Doull and volunteer to turn up the speaker’s volume.
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Usually unruffled by the noise around him, even Dhoni felt a little anxious and perplexed for a few seconds while the cheers continued before he could even utter a word in response to a query from Doull on how the result panned out.
— ChhalRaheHainMujhe (@ChhalRahaHuMain) May 15, 2023
The incident was captured in an amusing clip doing the rounds on social media. The ‘Dhoni Dhoni’ chants led the inimitable captain to get down to the speaker positioned adjacent to him on a sitting chair and turn up its volume to confirm “I can hear you now”.
“One of those days when you win the toss and bat first and the moment the first ball was bowled in the second innings, you realise it is a 180 wicket,” Dhoni went about explaining how CSK lost.
“Batting first I don’t think we could have got anywhere close to 180. I think the dew made a big difference. If you compare the first innings to the second innings, there was a lot more purchase for the spinners in the first innings and that’s what really got to us.”
