MS Dhoni in helicopter short hit two one-handed sixes in the GT vs CSK IPL match and then hugged a fan who breached security to meet him in Ahmedabad.
A huge roar erupted at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad when the umpires asked Shivam Dubey to wait to check the height of the full toss. It was a home match for Gujarat Titans, but the clamor for wickets was not due to him. Expect to see MS Dhoni bat. It didn’t take long for the third umpire to give Dubey his marching orders. Dhoni walked.
Nothing matters now. The state of play is a run in the playoffs. Net Run Rate Game… Nothing. It’s just a man and his fans.
MS Dhoni in helicopter short
Dhoni’s IPL has been a big event for the past two years. It’s routine now. Fans want Dhoni to bat at the top of the order but a knee injury prevents him from batting more than 15 balls. He batted for 11 runs against GT on Friday. Three of them are sixes. No more ordinary sixes.
Dhoni’s first six was a one-handed knuckleball off Mohit Sharma. You can almost feel the Narendra Modi Stadium vibrating. It was that loud. But Dhoni was just getting started. For 53 runs to win, a six off the remaining eight balls wasn’t enough, but who cares? Fans just wanted Dhoni to bat in all of them. And he faced about seven.
Dhoni submitted the first two balls of Rashid Khan’s last over to the stands. The first was a helicopter shot. He would dance down the track, reject whatever swing was on offer and use his strong wrists to give the ball powerful spin.
Rashid put down the last one. Dhoni was out of shape, but he has such good hands that he doesn’t need to be in good position. The handle does not have two hands.
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The third ball was an anti-climax. For some reason, Dhoni decided to defend it, but it was a googly and it hit him on the back foot. There was a long, uncomfortable plea from Rashid but the umpire shook his head. GT sent stand-in captain Rahul Tewatia. Replays showed that the ball would have bounced over the stumps. Dhoni had three balls for entertainment.