During the IPL 2021 final against CSK, Rahul Tripathi, who had been KKR’s middle-overs slogger, had suffered a hamstring injury while fielding during CSK’s innings. Tripathi was hobbling, but with KKR at 6 down for 120 runs pursuing the target of 193, he courageously came out to bat at number 8, for the game was still alive with skipper Eoin Morgan still at the crease.
Neither Tripathi, who scored 2 runs off 3 balls, nor Morgan (4 off 8) could do more than little to their side’s cause then as KKR lost went on to lose by 27 runs.
However, there was someone from his hometown, Ranchi, in yellow jersey who consoled and motivated Tripathi: it was MS Dhoni, the CSK captain. Tripathi recalled that MS Dhoni had hailed him for trying his best despite an injury. He also revealed that Dhoni had, later on, talked with him to boost his confidence.
“I had a hamstring injury and therefore, I came in lower down the order. I couldn’t score runs, I was really struggling to run between the wickets. After I got out, Mahi Bhai tapped on my back and said: ‘Koi nahi, aaj tumhara day nahi tha, But tune hundred percent try kiya’. I was feeling very down since we lost the final, but Mahi bhai came after the game also and spoke to me for a minute or so,” Tripathi told News18.
MS Dhoni and Rahul Tripathi go back a few years: Tripathi played his first IPL season in 2017 for the Rising Pune Supergiant, in which MS Dhoni also played (he’d captained in 2016 and was replaced by Steve Smith the next season) when CSK were suspended.
Tripathi shone brightly in his debut season- smashing 391 runs at a strike rate of 146 in Pune’s run to the final. He then had two middling seasons at Rajasthan Royals, before he was snapped up by KKR, for 2019 and 2020, and was used as a middle-order basher.
Seeing his impressive returns last season -397 runs at a strike rate of 140- that also earned him a reputation as a complete team man, and his good domestic form, SRH splurged out 8.5 crore for Rahul Tripathi at the mega-auction.
