IPL 2018: MS Dhoni's vintage knock delights Suresh Raina

Chennai Super Kings batting has always evolved around Suresh Raina, their Chinna Thalla, but this time around Raina has been on and off. He was struggling in the first few games, sat out with an injury, missing his first ever match for CSK, came back played a knock worth 40 odd runs, followed it up with an unbeaten half century but managed just 11 against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Wednesday. However, it didn’t matter as the skipper MS Dhoni finished the game off for CSK in style.

Dhoni won the toss and asked the home team to bat first. Chasing a target is a lot easier in Bangalore given how small the ground is, how dew comes into play and of course CSK’s innate ability to scale down tougher targets with relative ease. On the back of AB de Villiers’ half century RCB posted 205 runs on the board. Chennai needed a good start but that was not to be.

Shane Watson, Raina, Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Billings were dismissed cheap. But Ambati Rayudu was there, he accompanied the big man, Dhoni. They had a 101-run partnership that took the team on the doorsteps of a victory. Rayudu scored 82, earned the orange cap but was run out for the third time this season.

CSK needed 16 runs in the last over, 5 on the last three balls and Dhoni, the ever so calm, the ever so confident, the ever so powerful, the best finisher ever launched Corey Anderson for a huge six and won the match for his team with 2 balls to spare. With this 5-wicket win, Chennai continue their winning run and took back their place on the top of the table.

Vintage Dhoni

After the win, Suresh Raina praised Dhoni and Rayudu for their effort as well as the team for the win. He wrote- “Nothing can go wrong till @msdhoni is at the crease. Vintage stuff from captain cool!! An excellent innings from @RayuduAmbati to set things up for us. All in all a great win for @ChennaiIPL! Keep it boys! #RCBvCSK #IPL2018”