"He is nursing a knee injury.."- Stephen Fleming gives a huge update on MS Dhoni's injury
The 17th game of the Indian Premier League saw glimpses of finisher MS Dhoni. Although he couldn't finish the game, he almost pulled off a miraculous chase for his team. It was the Chennai Super Kings taking on the Rajasthan Royals at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
CSK won the toss and put RR to bat first. Rajasthan posted a score of 175/8 in their first inning, with Jos Buttler top scoring with 52 off 36, including one four and three sixes. It was his third half-century in four innings this season.
Apart from him, Devdutt Padikkal (38 off 26), Ravi Ashwin (30 off 22), and Hetmyer (30* off 18) made good contributions in the middle. For CSK, Akash Singh, Tushar Deshpande, and Ravindra Jadeja picked up two wickets each. In reply, CSK had a decent start with Devon Conway (50 off 38) and Ajinkya Rahane (31 off 16).
But then they lost consecutive wickets. At one stage, CSK needed 40 runs off 12 balls. with the pair of Jadeja and MS Dhoni at the crease. Then, the fans saw some unbelievable hitting from the two batters. Especially, the CSK skipper looked at his best.
Jadeja hit two sixes off Jason Holder in the last over, which left CSK needing 21 from the 20th. Adding to that, Dhoni hit two consecutive sixes in the 20th over of Sandeep Sharma, but the equation came down to five off the last ball. Sandeep bowled a brilliant yorker, and Dhoni could only score one run.
As a result, RR won the game by three runs. Dhoni remained unbeaten on 32 from 17 balls. But after the game, CSK head coach Stephen Fleming dropped a bombshell on Dhoni's sustaining a knee injury.
In the post-match presentation, Fleming said about Dhoni, "He is nursing a knee injury, which you can see in some of his movements. It's hindering him somewhat. His fitness has always been very professional. He comes a month before the tournament starts. He's a great player. We have never doubts over him. He's just amazing."
Earlier, some media reports confirmed that Dhoni was carrying an injury ahead of the start of the IPL 2023. But Fleming also said that the injury is not so big that Dhoni will miss any games.