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MS Dhoni of the Chennai Superkings during match 33 of Indian Premier League 2022 (IPL season 15) between the Mumbai Indians and the Chennai Superkings, at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai, Thursday, April 21, 2022.

Uthappa kept chewing, Shokeen seemed still confident as his team-mates huddled around him.

HomeSportsIPL 2022Dhoni the margdarshak and finisher , Rohit's drought continues, Pollard's ego gets the better of him and Bravo's slow beauty

Dhoni the margdarshak and finisher , Rohit’s drought continues, Pollard’s ego gets the better of him and Bravo’s slow beauty

Written By Sriram Veera , Nihal Koshie

IPL 2022, IPL 2022 dhoni, IPL 2022 csk, IPL 2022 mi, sports news, indian express

Uthappa kept chewing, Shokeen seemed still confident as his team-mates huddled around him.

The Dhoni deja-vu

It’s what MS Dhoni did immediatelyafter hitting the final-ball four that brought a smile. He had a decently long chat with Ishan Kishan, animatedly describing an arc in the field, and then spotted the young debutant Hrithik Shokeen, patted his back to commence another chat. How quickly he slipped into the margdarshak mentor role after getting the 16 runs needed off the final four.Hefirst smashed Jaydev Unadkat to the straight boundary, calmly hooked the slow bouncer to fine-leg advertising boards, wrested a two to retain the strike for the final ball where he dragged an attempted yorker past the short fine-leg fielder. All the Dhoni touches were visible: dragging the game to its last breath, knowing there were two overs from Unadkat left to target, first calming down Pretorius, who seemed hellbent in running out himself or Dhoni, before signing off the game in his style, with a last-ball boundary and chats with youngsters.

Bravo’s gorgeous honey trap

It’s one of the most beautiful slower balls in business, Dwayne Bravo’s drop-dead killer. It suspends in the air, almost, just above the eye-level of the batsman. Is it at that point the batsmen, Daniel Sams in this case, know that he is about to be done? He is just about committed to a shot when that illusionary suspension happens; then it begins to drop dead. Unlike most other pace deliveries, where a batsman almost doesn’t see what’s happening be it because of the sheer pace or a nasty bouncer or a vicious cutter, here he can see his own demise and the weapon all that much clearer. So, Sams watched in what must be rapidly escalating panic, that he is not going to survive.For the dipper, just before release, I twist the wrist and pull down on the side of the ball. The thumb and fingers don’t work much but sort of flick it out.” he had told this newspaper. “I go for his thigh pad. What I am really looking to bowl is a full toss! The batsman feels it’s going to be a beamer before it dips so fast on him.”