MS Dhoni was at it again: changing the game with his incredible glovework behind the stumps. This time, it was in the final of IPL 2023, and the batsman was the Orange Cap winner of the season, the in-form Shubman Gill.
Shubman and Wriddhiman Saha had got the Gujarat Titans off to a flier in the final with their partnership of 67 runs in 6.5 overs.
Gill, who had notched up 3 hundreds in his last 4 innings, had been dropped early in the innings by Deepak Chahar, and looked set for a big one as well: he was going at close to a strike rate of 200 and the pitch looked flat and good for batting.
However, some good bowling from Ravindra Jadeja and sharp stumping from Mahendra Singh Dhoni brought Gill’s downfall.
Jadeja ripped one up, extracting the most amount of turn possible, lulling Shubman Gill in a forward drive and beating him on the outside edge with some turn.
As Gill moved forward and missed his shot, Mahendra Singh Dhoni calmly collected the ball right behind the stumps – Dhoni was careful as ever to not collect the ball in line or ahead the stumps, otherwise, it would have been a no-ball – and in a split second whipped the bails off as Shubman was late in dragging back his foot in the crease back.
Watch: MS Dhoni’s incredibly quick stumping to dismiss Shubman Gill:
Mahendra Singh Dhoni knew it was out, but didn’t make any loud appeal. As Jadeja asked him, MS Dhoni nonchalantly smiled at Jadeja, for the CSK captain knew he’d had his man.
Earlier, Dhoni had won the toss and elected to field first.
Teams:
Gujarat Titans (Playing XI): Wriddhiman Saha(w), Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, Hardik Pandya(c), Vijay Shankar, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Mohit Sharma, Noor Ahmad, Mohammed Shami
Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devon Conway, Ajinkya Rahane, Moeen Ali, Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni(w/c), Deepak Chahar, Matheesha Pathirana, Tushar Deshpande, Maheesh Theekshana
