‘Shameless’ MS Dhoni faces backlash over ‘classless’ RCB act

The defending champions suffered an unceremonious exit from the competition after losing at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday. It came as a surprise to fans and pundits, considering a win would have guaranteed their place in the IPL playoffs.

Remarkably, RCB’s sixth consecutive triumph in the 2024 IPL helped them to qualify for the tournament’s knockout stage.

Midway through the IPL, RCB looked down and out, as they were lying at the bottom of the table with only a single win to show in the Win/Loss column.

But their turnaround was led by Virat Kohli, the only player to score over 700 runs in the current edition of the IPL.

Once again, Virat Kohli played a crucial role in RCB’s win as he scripted history at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.

The 35-year-old smashed a quickfire 47 off 29 balls to become the first cricketer to complete more than 3000 runs at a single venue in the competition.

RCB posted a healthy total of 218/5 on the board, with Faf du Plessis (54 off 39), Rajat Patidar (41 off 23), and Cameron Green (38* off 17) being the other main contributors to their score.

In reply, CSK made a disastrous start as they lost their captain Ruturaj Gaikwad for nought on the first ball of their innings.

Subsequently, CSK fell short by 27 runs as they could only score 191/7 in their allocated 20 overs. MS Dhoni’s contribution in that total was 25 off 13 deliveries, which could be his last knock in CSK colors.

One must not forget that MS Dhoni has been associated with Chennai Super Kings since its inception in 2008.

During his long 14-year stint as captain of the Chennai-based side, he guided them to five IPL titles, including last year when CSK joined Mumbai Indians atop the list of the most successful teams in the elite T20 competition.

CSK played their last game in IPL 2024 against Virat Kohli’s RCB at the M. Chinnaswamy during the weekend, and many believe it was MS Dhoni’s final match in the cash-rich league.

The former Team India captain, who won the 2007 T20 World Cup and the 2011 World Cup, underwent knee surgery last year.

While CSK’s management managed his workload, sending him to bat lower down the order, pundits feel that his body can no longer survive the rigors of top-level cricket for almost two months, considering that the 42-year-old doesn’t play any other form of the sport during the rest of the year.

Interestingly, despite the constraints he has to deal with this season due to injury, MS Dhoni still has impressive numbers in IPL 2024.

MS Dhoni’s performance in the death overs has been phenomenal, to say the least. For instance, he smashed Hardik Pandya for three consecutive sixes in a match against Mumbai Indians earlier in the tournament.

Overall, MS Dhoni made 161 runs in 14 fixtures in the 17th edition of the IPL, and what was astounding about his stats in the tournament was his strike rate of 220.55.

Like everyone else, former CSK batter Michael Hussey is clueless about MS Dhoni’s impending plans. However, he wished to see MS Dhoni continue for a few more years.

“Your guess is as good as mine at this stage. He keeps his cards very, very close to his chest. We are hoping he does keep going,” Michael Hussey noted.

“He is still batting so well. He does prepare well – he gets into the camp very early and hits a lot of balls. He has been in good touch all season really. I guess we just got to try to manage him from the body side of things. He had a knee surgery after the last season. So he has been managing that from the initial stage of the tournament,” he elaborated.

“From a personal point of view, I hope he keeps going for another couple of years. But we will just have to wait and see. He is the only one who will make that call. And he likes to sort of build the drama a little bit as well. So I wouldn’t expect a decision anytime soon,” the Australian batting stalwart continued.

“I know fans probably want to see him batting a little bit higher in the order. But that [the knee surgery] is why we have had to manage him a little bit and he only comes in at the back end. But there has been no one better in being able to come in and hit the ball so cleanly from ball one than MS. He has been phenomenal,” he summed up.