IPL 2019: With 70 runs from 21 balls, MS Dhoni has once again proven he is the king of the 20th over
Mahendra Singh Dhoni is arguably the greatest finisher in the history of the game. We have on countless occasions seen him finish off games with his magical touch in limited overs cricket.
Yesterday, when he scored a 22-ball 44 against the Delhi Capitals in Match 50 of IPL 2019, he once again proved why he is superior to any other batsman in the death overs. His exploits have led CSK to the top of the points table, and reminded everyone why he is held in such high regard.
Dhoni has scored 358 runs from 11 games so far, including 21 fours and 20 huge sixes. Let us look at how he has performed in the 20th over of each game.
19 runs off 6 balls against the Delhi Capitals
Against the Delhi Capitals, Dhoni came to the crease when the Super Kings were finding it difficult to score runs. From 88/2 after 14 overs, the MSD magic helped them post a much more respectable 179 on the board after 20 overs.
The 20th over bowled by Trent Boult saw Dhoni scoring a boundary and two consecutive sixes off the last two balls. CSK won the match by a whopping margin of 80 runs.
24 runs off 6 balls against the Royal Challengers Bangalore
Chennai Super Kings were staring at defeat when they were 136/7 after the 19th over. They required 26 runs off the last over to win that game. When Dhoni smashed 4-6-6-2-6 off the first five deliveries sent down by Umesh Yadav, he came on the verge of achieving something which everyone thought was impossible.
Unfortunately for him, there was a run out on the last ball and CSK lost the match by 1 run.
2 runs off 2 balls against the Rajasthan Royals
With 18 runs needed off the last over bowled by Ben Stokes, Ravindra Jadeja started off with a six. Dhoni could only sneak in a double when he came on strike, before he was castled by Stokes. But his mature innings of 58 off 43 balls made sure that CSK won the game by 4 wickets.
6 runs off 3 balls against the Kings XI Punjab
Dhoni scored a quickfire 37 off 23 balls against the Kings XI Punjab which gave CSK the much needed push down the order. He scored a boundary and two singles off 3 balls in the last over which was bowled by Mohammed Shami. CSK won the game by 22 runs.
19 runs off 4 balls against the Rajasthan Royals
CSK were batting first in this encounter, and the last over was bowled by Jaydev Unadkat - with Dhoni and Jadeja at the crease. Dhoni took a single off the first ball and got the strike again on the fourth, and he proceeded to hit three consecutive sixes from there.
CSK ended up with a total of 175, and won the match by eight runs.
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