How did Dhoni take Chennai to the final? (IPL T20.COM)
New Delhi, Chennai has reached the final of the IPL for a record 10th time. In this season, after the league match, it made it to the final by defeating the first-ranked team Gujarat. Now Chennai is just one step away from the title. Last time the Chennai team was at the ninth position. But now the tide has turned. Dhoni has moved towards winning his fifth IPL trophy. But wait, what is Dhoni’s contribution in taking the team to this point? Dhoni played a total of 15 matches this season, including the playoffs, in which he scored 104 runs. Has taken 8 wickets including 6 catches and 2 stumpings.
These figures only say that this performance is inadequate and Dhoni’s contribution in reaching the final of the team is nothing. But before thinking like this, know some tricks of Dhoni’s captaincy. Due to which he made his team successful without scoring runs. Some decisions of number seven Dhoni were such that they are no less than a miracle in the game.
Dhoni avoids frequent changes in the team
There are 7 players in Dhoni’s team who played all 15 matches of the season. This includes Devon Conway, Rituraj Gaikwad, Shivam Dubey, Ravindra Jadeja, Ambati Rayudu, Tushar Deshpande and Dhoni himself. Apart from this, there are 4 players who played more than 10 matches. In this, Pathirana played 11, Teekshana 12, Ajinkya Rahane 13 and Moeen Ali played 14 matches. This simply means that Dhoni made very limited changes in the team. Match by match, he continued to play with the same playing 11. Ambati Rayudu scored only 139 runs in 15 matches. But Dhoni’s faith remained on him.
Like Dhoni’s batsmen, the team of bowlers also remained almost the same throughout the season. Teekshana and Pathirana continued to play with Tushar Deshpande. Ravindra Jadeja was with him. The result of this was that Ben Stokes, on whom about 16.5 crore rupees were spent, did not appear in the field even after getting fit. Mitchell Santner also got a chance in only 3 matches.
lower order batting
Whatever the circumstances of the match, Dhoni did not tinker with his batting order. In some matches, he played short but useful innings. In this season, the ball was getting good ‘connection’ with his bat. Despite this, he did not change his batting order. The naysayers may say that he should have done so, but at the moment the results are saying that Dhoni’s thinking was correct. He kept a quota of 7-10 balls for his play. That is why he remained not out in 8 out of 11 innings. His strike rate was more than 185. He has the highest strike rate among all the batsmen playing for Chennai. In the playoff match, Dhoni had realized that this wicket is not of 200. In such a situation, ignoring the ‘fancy’ scoreboard of 200, he and his batsmen tried to score maximum runs.
how much to bowl with which player
When to bowl how much with which bowler, whether to fulfill his quota or not… Dhoni always took the decision very wisely. Take the example of a playoff match. Chennai had to defend 172 runs. Deepak Chahar started the bowling. Dhoni got 3 overs from Deepak Chahar in the first powerplay itself. In which he gave 22 runs. Chahar’s one over was saved for the death over. But Dhoni called back Chahar in the 14th over itself. Chahar dismissed Shubman Gill on the very first ball. The match for Gujarat ended here. It is okay that later Rashid Khan raised some hopes but then the match had slipped out of hand. This is just an example, Dhoni kept doing this continuously throughout the season.
