MS Dhoni in action for Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2025© BCCI
Chennai Super Kings skipper MS Dhoni was left surprised after he received the Player Of The Match award following the win over Lucknow Super Giants on Monday. Dhoni slammed 26 off just 11 deliveries with the help of 4 fours and one six to complete a thrilling run chase. Thanks to his brilliant show, Dhoni became the oldest player to win the Man of the Match award in IPL history. However, he said that it was unexpected and even pointed out that someone like CSK spinner Noor Ahmad also deserved it for his brilliant performance. “Even today I was like – “why are they giving me the award?” Noor bowled really well,” Dhoni said at the post-match presentation..
CSK currently sit at the bottom of the IPL 2025 points table having won just their second game.
“It’s good to win a game. When you play a tournament like this, you want to win games. Unfortunately the [earlier] matches didn’t go our way for whatever reasons. There can be lots of reasons. It’s good to have a win on our side. Gives confidence to the whole team and helps us improve in areas we want to improve. We all knew that when it doesn’t come your way in cricket, God makes it very tough, and it was a tough game. If you see the powerplay, whether it was the combination or the conditions, we were struggling with the ball. And then we weren’t able to get the start we wanted as a batting unit.”
“Also the fall of wickets. We keep losing wickets at the wrong time to some extent. One of the reasons could be that the Chennai wicket is slightly on the slower side. When we have played away from home, the batting unit has done slightly better. Maybe we need to play on wickets that are slightly better so that it’ll give the batters confidence to play their shots. You don’t want to play timid cricket.”
“We were putting too much pressure on Ash. He was bowling two overs in the first six. We made changes and this looks like a better attack. As a bowling unit we’ve done well. As a batting unit, we can do better. Roles and responsibilities – that’s what we talk about. If you get off to a good start, and you’re someone who can play through the innings, then why not. I think he batted really well today.”
“He has been with us for quite a few years (Shaik Rasheed). This year he has been batting really well in the nets against both pacers and spinners. It’s just the start. He has the capability to dominate with authentic shots,” the former Indian cricket team captain added.
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