MS Dhoni and a time-machine experience like no other

The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) enjoy a manic following in the country, with much of that loyalty down to their success and MS Dhoni. One such fan is in Vishakhapatnam, the scene of CSK’s next IPL fixture against the Delhi Capitals.

Before punching his ticket in to enter, though, he spots an unconventional machine. There are a couple of people around it, most likely those who have built it. They try attracting customers but to no avail. This instrument, though, has piqued this fan’s interest.

CSK fan: Hey, what is this machine about?

Machine developers: Well, it is a time-travel machine. There is a high chance you may not believe in it, but it takes you down memory lane.

CSK fan: As you said, I am not very optimistic about what it can do. But the game is still two hours away. Let me give it a try.

The fan steps in, and he is immediately thrown back to 2005. Vishakhapatnam. India versus Pakistan. Cricket, back then, was much simpler for fans. Just undivided love and passion for the national team. No franchise-based allegiances. No ulterior motives. No pulling one player down to support the other.

India are batting first. And Virender Sehwag is threatening to tear Pakistan to shreds. The crowd is thoroughly enjoying itself. Until, in the fourth over, Sachin Tendulkar gets out.

There is silence. The kind where you can hear a pin drop. Then walks in a youngster, long locks and all, who has not set the international stage alight. They say he can smash the cover off the ball but nothing of that sort for India. Yet.

Over the next couple of hours or so, that lad makes the whole city of Vishakhapatnam and India fall in love with him. 148 runs scored. Pakistan blasted away, and an innings that made people wonder what is indeed possible when this long-haired bruiser is at the crease.

The CSK fan, who has now bought into the time-machine concept completely, peers through, wanting to experience fully how it would have felt to be at the ground on that April afternoon in 2005, and see what next happens to this cricketer, only for the machine to malfunction.

Machine developers: Err, not sure this was supposed to happen. We will fix this, and we apologize for this breakdown.

CSK fan: It is okay, it was quite surreal going back in time. I wonder if I will ever be able to watch him bat that way and experience him in the flesh. I really hope we can fix this time machine or someone can come up with a similar design soon.

***

The fan enters the stadium. Three and a half hours of cricket have not yielded much joy for CSK. When their sixth wicket falls, they need 72 off 23 balls. The stadium, which is painted in yellow, and packed densely with CSK fans, should ideally be quiet.

But they are shouting at the top of their voices. The decibel levels are going through the roof, and all that is for one man – Thala Dhoni.

There is anticipation. There is excitement. There is enormous fanfare. This feeling that something special is about to happen in Vishakhapatnam. CSK, just to reiterate, have no chance of winning this game.

When Dhoni swivel-pulls his first ball, almost everyone forgets what the situation of the match is. The “CSK, CSK” chants go up. The “Dhoni, Dhoni” chants reverberate. They had all come to watch Dhoni, and they were all witnessing Dhoni in the flesh.

The second ball he faced, he sliced a catch straight to Khaleel Ahmed at backward point. The cricketing gods, though, decided that just two balls of Dhoni was not enough for a Sunday evening. Khaleel put it down, and mayhem ensued.

MS Dhoni displayed vintage hitting during his 16-ball knock

There were lofted cover drives, belted cover drives, cover drives that (metaphorically, of course) set the grass on fire. There were scythes over cover, the bottom-handed biff over mid-on, and a free-flowing one-handed club over deep mid-wicket

Each of these strokes, when Dhoni became such a household name all those years ago, was commonplace. They still find their way into the cricketing imagination from time to time, and when they do, they leave you with an indescribable feeling. That feeling of what-if. What if he had batted more? What if he batted more balls more often? What if he played on forever?

Questions that will perhaps only be answered by a time machine. If you had the fortune of being at the stadium in Vishakhapatnam, you would have felt like you had gone into a time machine too. Without literally getting into the time machine.

Long locks? Check. A bruising display of stroke-play? Check. The crowd going bananas? Check. A smashing knock that left you wanting more? Check. The only thing that did not align was that Dhoni’s team lost. Unlike all those years ago against Pakistan.

What this innings did, though, is put the rest of the IPL on notice, and make CSK believe again that anything is possible, especially when that man wearing No. 7 is around. And give those at the stadium an experience of a lifetime.

Dhoni, of course, is not the player who burst onto the scene at this very venue in 2005. What has stuck is his ability to suss any situation and impose his aura. When that happens, there is not much the bowlers can do. There were glimpses of it last season too, and this is the first time it has surfaced this year.

Considering the stage of his career, all of this should, ideally, be captured in a bottle because these will, no matter how eternal and ethereal Dhoni seems, not last forever. They are, at best, fleeting glimpses.

But all you need to throw that logic out of the window is a proper rewind of what unfolded in Vishakhapatnam.

So much so that when it all finished, you could hardly tell who had won. The Delhi Capitals, who were playing at home, were anyway massively outnumbered by CSK fans, and all of them danced and celebrated their heart out watching their former skipper smack 37 off 16.

And they were still celebrating as the Capitals switched off the lights on this contest. What shone through was the sea of yellow, almost fluorescent, bursting through the darkness that had descended on CSK on that particular day, just making everything feel alright. Like it was always meant to.

Dhoni does that to you. He has been doing that since 2005. Vishakhapatnam, of all places, should know that by now!