MS Dhoni scored 11-ball 16 against RR© PTI
MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja were on the pitch as Chennai Super Kings required 20 runs from the final over to beat Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 match on Sunday. Dhoni swung his bat, looking for a maximum, but found the safe hands of Shimron Hetmyer as he departed for an 11-ball 16. His partner Jadeja couldn’t do much either as CSK lost their second successive match, going down by 6 runs in the chase of 183. Though the margin of victory was narrow, it’s also a fact that the Super Kings have never managed to chase down a target of over 180 runs over the last five years.
Former India cricketer Virender Sehwag, who has worked in the IPL as a player, coach and pundit, claimed that there are very few occasions where a team managed to score at the rate of 20 runs per over at the end. Though Dhoni is one of the few players to have done so in the IPL, it hasn’t happened in the recent past.
“Scoring 40 runs in 2 overs is a difficult task. No matter how big of a player is in the middle, it is a difficult job. You win on one or two occasions, and that is about it. I remember Dhoni pulled off a heist when he hit 24 or 25 runs off the bowling of Axar Patel, and on one instance, he smashed Irfan Pathan for 19 or 20 runs in Dharamsala,” Sehwag told Cricbuzz.
Shewag shared some eye-opening statistics as he highlighted CSK’s long-standing struggles in chasing big targets in the IPL.
“You can just remember one or two matches on top of your mind. No recent matches come to your memory. For five years, CSK have been unable to chase totals of more than 180,” he asserted.
Dhoni walked out to bat ahead of the start of the 17th over, when CSK skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad had lost his wicket. With Jadeja in company, Dhoni struggled against Maheesh Theekshana, consuming a lot of deliveries before he could get a grasp on the nature of the wicket. He did hit a six and a four later but it the Super Kings couldn’t keep pace with the required run-rate.
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