CSK captain MS Dhoni failed to finish off the chase against Rajasthan Royals (RR) on Wednesday night in Chepauk. MS Dhoni had smoked Sandeep Sharma for two sixes in the last over of the chase of 175.
However, with 7 runs needed off the last 3 balls, Sandeep Sharma kept his cool and conceded only 3 single on the last 3 balls against Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja to seal a 3-run victory for RR, taking Sanju Samson’s team to the top of the points table.
The 41-year-old Thala turned the clock back to his heydays as he whacked 32 unbeaten runs off 17 balls with the help of 3 sixes and 1 four.
Fans were delighted to see the best of Mahendra Singh Dhoni as the veteran finisher almost pulled off a stunning heist on a tricky pitch, after CSK had been left needing 54 runs in the last 3 overs. However, he failed to find the boundary on the last ball.
This, as expected, led to some memes on Twitter and fans recalled the heroics of KKR batsman Rinku Singh against Gujarat Titans’ Yash Dayal only three days ago when Rinku walloped Dayal for 5 sixes in a row on the last 5 balls when 28 runs were needed to seal one of the most memorable chase in the IPL history.
Joining the bandwagon on Twitter was also renowned Twitter account ‘Trendulkar’, which is the parody account of a fan Tendulkar.
Trendulkar made a hilarious joke, saying that MS Dhoni should talk to Rinku Singh.
Trendulkar tweeted: “Rinku Singh needs to talk to Mahendra Singh”
This tweet spread like wildfire and the user clarified that he was merely joking.
After the match, CSK skipper lamented the lack of strike rotation by the CSK batter during the middle-overs phase, and especially against the three experienced RR spinners – Chahal, Ashwin, and Zampa.
After CSK lost Gaikwad early, scoring only 8 runs, Shivam Dube (8 off 9) and Moeen Ali (7 off 10) struggled to get going while Conway (50 off 38) was a bit too slow. Only Ajinkya Rahane (31 off 19) provided some impetus after the early loss of Gaikwad, but he couldn’t bat deep today as he did against MI. Eventually, it was left a bit too much for Dhoni and Jadeja to do.
“I think in the middle overs we needed a bit more strike rotation, there wasn’t much for the spinners but they had experienced spinners and we could not rotate strike. It was not that difficult and the ownership (of the loss) should come from the batters,” CSK Skipper said in the post-match presentation.
