Delhi crowd makes ‘single’ request to get Dhoni on strike, Jadeja responds… | Cricket

How do you explain the craze for MS Dhoni? For some it’s “shocking”, as said by South Africa legend Graeme Smith, while most will find it difficult to put into words. And IPL 2023 has been a season where the fandom has been largely at display with Chennai Super Kings fans invading every venue where the team has played only to bid a perfect farewell to Dhoni, who is believed to have been playing his final IPL tournament. This has affected his teammates as well with Ravindra Jadeja, albeit in a humorous way, had mentioned it two weeks back. Well, he has been a victim of it the most times this season, a glimpse of which was seen on Saturday as well during the IPL 2023 match against Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. (DC vs CSK Live Score, IPL 2023)

Jadeja had walked in to bat in the 19th over when Anrich Nortje dismissed Devon Conway for 87 and he immediately made an impact scoring a six and a four to get CSK past the 200-run mark before the start of the final over. But while these boundaries subsequently makes an impact on the scoreboard with CSK requiring to up their net run rate to make the playoffs, fans are more concerned about wanting to see Dhoni bat.

The CSK captain did get to be on strike at the start of the 20th over, but an excellent yorker from Chetan Sakariya only saw him get a single. With Jadeja being in form, CSK would want Jadeja on strike more, but Delhi crowd immediately broke into wild “single” chant, requesting the all-rounder to get Dhoni on strike. And what did Jadeja do?

He smashed the low full toss for a boundary through backward square leg and then shuffled across against the wider delivery to sweep it past the infield for a second consecutive four.

Well, Jadeja had complained about the same in a cheeky way when asked whether he would prefer to bat higher up the order. After collecting the Player of the Match award in the match against DC at home on May 10, he had said: “I keep hearing Mahi bhai’s chants. If I bat higher, then the crowd will wait for me to get out. As long as the team wins, I am happy.”

Dhoni eventually did get to face the ball in the last over when Jadeja took a single in the penultimate delivery. Sakariya then bowled a no ball and a wide before Dhoni mistimed in taking down the yorker to get only a single. He finished with 5 off 4 as CSK pulled off 223 for three against Delhi.