IPL 2024: MS Dhoni set the tournament on fire in the early parts as he played a remarkable knock in his maiden innings in the IPL 2024.
Dhoni scored 37 runs in just 16 balls on the back of four boundaries and three sixes, an innings full of entertainment in a losing cause against Delhi Capitals.
While fans across the world witnessed Dhoni'smasterclass who rolled back the years with his impressive knock, Simon Doull has lashed out at the former CSK skipper for refusing singles, playing dot balls and giving up on giving the strike to Ravindra Jadeja.
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“There were a lot of oohs and aahs about Dhoni’s innings. But he blocked a lot of balls. he faced a lot of dots. Then he started to not take runs. I couldn’t believe what I was watching,” Doull said on Cricbuzz live.
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“I know he is the great MS Dhoni but it was a poor call. Really poor call not to take a run. You are still trying to win a game. I know he was batting after a long time, first time he came out to bat in this season and he is probably thinking at some stage maybe he got to find some form but I didn’t agree with it. I didn’t agree with what happened in that situation. To me, it was a really poor look.
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“I was watching and I was thinking, you know am I allowed to say this.. well yeah we have to at some stage you have to.
“It didn’t look good to me watching on the television. I have an enormous amount of respect for the man but that just didn’t quite look right to me, when he was hitting the ball and not taking the runs.
“Yes they might need sixes, there might be boundaries only required but there were a lot of oohs and aahs made about it. He is back, Dhoni is back, they lost the game,” he said.
Doull went on to say that the most surprising thing was Dhoni refused to take singles to Jadeja, who was the hero of last year's final.
Notably, just when the match seemed to have gone out of CSK's hands, Dhoni avoided taking singles and was keen to deal only in boundaries.
CSK suffered the first defeat of the season, losing the match against Delhi by 20 runs.
“It’s not like you have got a bunny on the other hand. You have Jadeja at the other end. Think about the final last year, what happened in the final last year .. six and four needed of the last two balls to win the title. It’s not like he can’t hit the ball out of the park,” said Doull.
While Dhoni came out to bat at the eighth position after Shivam Dube's dismissal, many came up with the advice to him to bat a bit up the order considering the touch he is in with the bat.
It will be interesting to see the batting position of Dhoni in CSK's next match against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Friday, April 5.