‘Thala is back!’ Vintage MS Dhoni returns with a bang as no captaincy pressure sees him smash 50

Surely he is not ‘Captain Cool’ of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) anymore, but MS Dhoni’s batting form is back. The man, who was struggling for some time, saw him smash a half-century in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 opener against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Mumbai. This is fifty number 24 in IPL for MS Dhoni.

The ‘Thala’ of CSK’s last IPL fifty (84* off 48 balls) had come against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in Bengaluru on April 21, 2019.

Before MS Dhoni walked to the field, CSK had lost five wickets in quick succession and all believed that the side would not even reach the 100 run mark. However, tables turned and the Dhoni-Ravindra Jadeja combo proved to be magic as CSK got 131 runs on the board.

At 61/5 it did not look good for the Yellow Army, in fact, it looked worse at 84/5 in 17 overs when Dhoni was seen struggling against spinner Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine. Even Jadeja could not time the ball properly, but the new captain did try hard and made sure to not lose his wicket.

However, Dhoni later picked Andre Russel for three fours. He even took on Shivam Mavi, who had bowled an outstanding first half of the 19th over.

While surely 131 is an under-par score and there is an advantage for KKR, things could change in the entertaining T20 league.