IPL-2021: The Last Of The MSD?
There have been rumors floating around
in the UAE (United Arab Emirates) about the 40-year-old star cricketer’s
retirement after IPL-2021 which seems realistic now that he has played the 300th
match and also winning the title, creating a moment of glory in leaving. However,
the unpredictable, as far as retirement is concerned, cricketer has denied all
rumors and made it clear that if not as the captain of CSK he’d continue to be
available as a player. After the final encounter of the IPL-2021 MS Dhoni also
said that with two new teams coming for the auctions for IPL-2022 the best of
interests for CSK would naturally be kept in mind and the Indian cricket board
BCCI would be the final authority to decide on his position or place in the
team. If he retires indeed then we have seen the last of the MSD here in Dubai,
and unfortunately we missed seeing him bat as it was not necessary for him and
there was also the rare drop of a catch behind by someone who is never known
for such lapses. But fortunately, we had again seen him in the role of a ‘finisher’
in the Qualifier-1 where he hit the required 13 runs in the last over to take
CSK straight into the Final, defeating DC (Delhi Capitals), the top team in the
points table.
As for the IPL-2021 Final Dhoni’s CSK
almost sealed the encounter when its top four batsmen took the winds out of KKR—the
batting explosion led by opener Faf du Plessis with 86 runs off just 59 balls
and significant contributions by opener Rituraj Gaikwad, Robin Uthappa and Moeen
Ali—posted a mammoth total of 192 runs on the board. KKR, the team that
performed brilliantly in the UAE leg of the tournament, basically consists of 5
or 6 contributing players—the two consistent openers of Shubman Gill and Venkatesh
Iyer, the three spinners of Narine, Chakravarthy and Shakib (a late addition in
the absence of the unpredictable Andre Russel), and pacer Mavi, at times joined
by batsman Rana. All others, unfortunately, were more of liabilities than
assets including most prominently the KKR captain Eoin Morgan and wicket-keeper
Dinesh Karthik—their glaring inability to lead the team when required. In the
Final too, despite an opening partnership of 91 runs in good time, the
following batsmen failed miserably including Narine on whom the team depends as
a batsman too. Also, the point to be mentioned here is that KKR played most of
their matches in the relatively sluggish pitches of Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, and
won mostly low scoring matches, their trio of spinners and Mavi restricting the
oppositions to less than 150 most often. The high-scoring match on an easy
pitch the CSK total score was literally beyond KKR standards.
The MSD phenomenon has been getting
tremendous praise both nationally and internationally by famous cricketers. He has
earned the title of ‘Captain Cool’ for his simplicity and easy manners on the
field, and is also known for his ‘helicopter shot’ signifying his raw hitting power
and unorthodox approach to the game. He initially started as a lower order
batsman, but was promoted to the top order thanks to his prowess and utility,
and then settled more or less as a middle-order batsman. He has been given the
honor of figuring in the ICC World Test IX 3 times as captain, a record 8 times
in the ICC World ODI IX of which 5 times as captain of the team along with ICC
ODI Player of the Year in 2008 and in 2009. In India, the modest boy from
Ranchi won Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 2007, Indian civil honors Padmashri
in 2009 and Padma Bhushan in 2018.
The MSD phenomenon has not been without
its share of ups and downs, criticisms, controversy and unpredictable behavior.
He suddenly laid down his captaincy from the ODI format ahead of a series in
2017 making himself still available as a player. More dramatically, he
announced his retirement from Test cricket amidst a Test Series in Australia in
2014-15 leaving it all to Virat Kohli to handle. He retired from all formats of
international cricket on 15th August, 2020, perhaps prompted by his
famous run-out against New Zealand in the semi-final of the ICC Cricket World
Cup-2019 thus failing to ‘finish’ the match, and the aftermath of his non-selection
for the international matches by the BCCI. Dhoni had also been criticized by
his moves to oust the stalwarts of Team India one by one bringing in new blood,
of course seemingly favoring some players, and of late for his inability to
accelerate in batting. In the aftermath of the World Cup-2007 disaster for
India Dhoni’s Ranchi residence was vandalized by perhaps disappointed fans. His
IPL franchise CSK was involved in a bitter match-fixing controversy that
started in 2013 for which the franchise was banned for two years in 2015, and
Dhoni was purchased by Pune for one year after that. In 2018 he came back to
lead CSK again and won the third Championship title that year.
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