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Vintage MS Dhoni was on display at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday. The legendary former India captain rescued Chennai Super Kings (CSK) with an unbeaten fifty in the IPL 2022 opener against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
This was an important innings for Dhoni individually as, before today, he had gone through 28 innings without scoring a fifty.
The last time Dhoni stroked a half-century was in IPL 2019. It came against Virat Kohli's Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in a second-leg encounter at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
Chasing a target of 162 set by the Royal Challengers in that match, CSK got off to a horrible start. They were reduced to 28/4 with Dale Steyn shedding fire with the new ball.
MS Dhoni walked out to bat at the dismissal of Kedar Jadhav, at 28/4, and took the game by the scruff of the neck. He launched a counter-attack, hitting everything coming his way.
The former India captain took the game deep but failed to take his side home as Chennai fell agonisingly short by just one run. Dhoni was unbeaten on 84 runs off 48 balls, aided by five boundaries and seven towering sixes.
MS Dhoni's unbeaten 50 guides CSK to 131 runs
Asked to bat first in IPL 2022's first match, Umesh Yadav racked up some good pace to reduce the defending champions to 29/2 in five overs. The veteran pacer got the better of openers Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway cheaply.
The Kolkata franchise continued to put pressure on CSK to have them 61/5 after 11 overs, which saw the arrival of Dhoni to the middle.
He took some time to settle in and initially struggled to get his timing right. But once he got his eyes in, the 41-year-old wicket-keeper batsman unleashed his shots.
Eventually, Dhoni remained unbeaten on 50 off 38 balls to propel the four-time IPL champions to 131/5, adding 70 runs with skipper Ravindra Jadeja for the sixth wicket.
The way MS Dhoni batted showed that the legendary Indian keeper-batsman is still a big asset for his team. Despite concerns about his form, MSD showed that he is still the best bet for his team when they are in a spot of bother.
