IPL 2021,DC vs CSK:Dhoni the finisher can never be written off

A script of (Arabian) dreams unfolded as MS Dhoni sealed the match with a throwback 18 off six balls, to hunt down the target of 173 runs Delhi Capitals set Chennai Super Kings with two balls to spare and take his team into another Indian Premier League final. There was a spate of half-centuries —Ruturaj Gaikwad’s 70, Robin Uthappa’s 63, Prithvi Shaw’s 60, and Rishabh Pant’s 51 not out — but all that would be remembered from the match would be Dhoni’s 18, as it often happens when he stays till the end. The rumours of Dhoni’s waning finishing prowess seem grossly exaggerated, on Sunday’s evidence. The validation came in a brief but vivid knock of 18 off six balls. Do not forget to suffix the not-out asterisk. For the zillionth time in his career, Dhoni finished off a match, a contest that Chennai Super Kings should have perhaps won before his interference. But never mind, everybody likes the Dhoni theatre.

When he strode in, surprisingly ahead of the in-form Ravindra Jadeja, a few frowns and scowls accompanied him to the crease at the fall of Ruturaj Gaikwad for a purring 70. The requirement had blown to 24 off 12 balls. A near-canter by peak Dhoni standards, but not quite as straightforward these days. How wrong we were in (mis)judging him, he was to prove.

Avesh Khan beats him with a fullish slower ball first up. The second ball is pulled back a bit, and Dhoni hops back to his back-foot, shuffling in a trice, and bludgeons it over deep mid-wicket. The sparsely-populated stadium goes delirious. A dot ball, then the wicket of Moeen Ali, and CSK were tasked to knock down 13 off five balls. No problem. The first ball he faced off Tom Curran is slapped over extra cover, Dhoni waiting for the ball and pummelling it. A fortuitous bottom edge that rolled to the fine-leg fence hacks the target down to five off three balls. A wide reduces it to four. And inevitably, Dhoni wraps the match with a pulled four.