IPL: 4 times when MS Dhoni was the lone fighter in CSK's defeat
Mahendra Singh Dhoni is arguably the most celebrated cricketer in the history of the Indian Premier League. Since 2008, his contribution in helping the Chennai Super Kings build a brand for themselves cannot be measured.
The Captain Cool has been the standout during CSK's years of glory and there is no denying that. He always puts the team ahead of himself and leads from the front whenever he steps on the field.
In the past, there have been numerous occasions when Dhoni has raised his own battles when the rest of the CSK team has faltered miserably. Let us take a look at the instances when Dhoni has been the lone warrior in CSK's defeats.
#4 70* off 40 balls vs Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2011
It was 2011. The Chennai Super Kings were playing the Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. As usual, the expectations were very high from the CSK batting line-up in a bitter clash of IPL arch-rivals but the batting unit of the CSK failed to deliver.
MS Dhoni came to bat when the CSK were reeling at 22/4 and held the innings together from there on. He single-handedly propelled the score to a modest 128/8 with his 40-ball 70* including 3 fours and 6 sixes.
Wriddhiman Saha was the only other batsman to cross the score of 20 that day. Other than that it was MSD all the way! The Royal Challengers cruised to a victory in a cakewalk run chase but the crowd was treated with a Dhoni special that day.
Brief Scores: CSK 128/8 (Dhoni 70*, Saha 22; Vettori 2/15) lost to RCB 129/2 (Gayle 75*, Kohli 31*; Morkel 1/16) by 8 wickets.