He’s not finished yet. In fact, he’s achieved another record. Silencing his critics once again, MS Dhoni, who is closer to the age of 41 than he’s to 40, scaled the 7000-run mark in T20 cricket with his short blitz against Lucknow Super Giants on Thursday at the Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai.
MS Dhoni smashed 16 runs off just 6 balls, his knock laced with 2 fours and one six, and took CSK to a total of 210. Before this game, Dhoni had 6985 T20 runs under his belt in 348 games (307 innings) at an average of 38 and strike rate of 134; he’s hit 28 fifties in his T20 career.
Apart from representing India at the international level, Dhoni has played for Chennai Super Kings and Rising Pune Supergiant(s) in the IPL, and at the lower level, he’s turned up for Indians and Jharkhand.
Among Indian batsmen, only Robin Uthappa, Suresh Raina, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have amassed more runs than MS Dhoni in T20 cricket – and all of those have batted in the top order in most of their entire careers.
What this reflects is MS Dhoni’s consistency for a long time, his adaptability to the changing game in T20 cricket, and, of course, his elite fitness levels that keep him going in the most intense T20 league in the world even after the age of 40.
Having left the Chennai Super Kings captaincy on the eve of the tournament, there were questions raised from all corners about how much gas Dhoni has left in his tank; how many games now he will play; will he even be good enough to be in CSK’s best eleven just as a batsman-keeper.
Dhoni preferred to give the answers with his bat: a brilliant knock of 50* off 38 balls against KKR, taking the team to a respectable position after they were 61/5; this followed with a short cameo against LSG, a proper MS Dhoni stuff in the last two overs. He started with a six, and finished with a boundary; strike rate: a mammoth 266. The MS Dhoni song continues.
