IPL 2023 – CSK CSK things up as MS Dhoni masterminds another IPL final

When a batter struggles like Devon Conway has, the broadcast cameras go back to the dugout and the locker room for reaction. Seen as the new Michael Hussey for Chennai Super Kings, Conway seemed unable to hit or get out despite Ruturaj Gaikwad scoring fluently at the other end. It was like he was in sand: the more he tried, the more he sank in. He handled exactly half the carries he faced.

However, no camera shows reaction in the batting area, where coach Stephen Fleming sits, or in the dressing room, where MS Dhoni sits. Donnie has been through it before. In the year 2014 saw Yuvraj Singh get stuck in the final of the T20 World Cup but he got far less luck than Conway who at least got a few edge boundaries. He saw Ravindra Jadeja fail in the previous T20 World Cup in England, but that didn’t stop him from supporting Jadeja.

You wonder if Dhoni remembers that night in Dhaka, but you have to be sure that anyone in that camp would have thought something funny like taking out one of their most reliable batteries so that someone else could handle it. go to.

CSK don’t believe in jokes. They believe that if the specialist batting on their side finds it difficult there, chances are the new batter will find it even more difficult. As long as the player is showing the right mindset and trying to do what he was trained to do, they are happy.

The camera caught Dhoni’s reaction when the match was done and dusted as GT needed 31 with eight wickets in hand and Tusshar Deshpande tried to bowl Mohammad Shami. It’s been a long time.”kyuuuuuun” [whyyyyyyy] And when Deshpande bowled on Shami’s pad, he showed the range of fielders on the outside.

Similarly, Dhoni told the fielders in his post-match presentation that they don’t always look at him, but he is a quick captain who moves the fielders. Two feet this way or more often – it will not be good for them.

The process is important, not the result: it sounds good, but in the game, when the match is slipping, when you know what the dew did to your bowlers in the last match at the same place, there are not many leaders, except Dhoni and Fleming, who believe that the team that makes the least mistakes will win more often.

On the night, Hardik Pandya said his side made more “fundamental mistakes”. Despite being the best team in the tournament, they were making all the runs: this IPL. A player brought it to the first place, disrupting the batting sequence that had won the last game for no reason. Pandya also said that he left too many two-three innings balls, which was the difference between the two sides.

This is not to confirm that an update has been made. CSK and India under Dhoni have lost matches in the past, maybe they should have improved, but CSK are happy to live with those days despite making many mistakes in the format of cricket. They are happy with 160 and are competing instead of going to 180 and competing for 140.

The odds were on CSK’s side. Ruturaj Gaikwad’s wicket was only his second front-foot no-ball against Gujarat Titans and he was named man of the match. According to ESPNcricinfo’s Look Index, CSK scored 14 more runs. They won by 15.

More importantly, the dew arrived late in the night and with 45 minutes between power and death, Jadeja and Mahesh Tekshana were able to turn the ball over at great pace. In times like these, the combination of Dhoni and Jadeja is irresistible, and Techna is joining the club fast.

Even when mistakes were inevitable, Dhoni had the presence of mind to choose the least. We don’t know what the fitness issue is, but Matisha Pathirana has been ruled out after his debut. When the 16th over started, he still hadn’t served enough time on the field to start the second game. If he hadn’t driven the Pathirana at that time, Dhoni would have had to have done it if it hadn’t been for four takes from the original instrument at the time of death.

Between losing one Patrina again and again and replacing the bowler with cold bowling and one more fielder in the circle, Dhoni opted for the obvious lesser evil. He let the clock run and continued without a fuss until the referees said Pathirana had served his time. This was Dhoni’s version of captaincy telling his bowlers: if you bowl badly, make sure 13-14-runs are bad and not 20-runs bad.

In a lively post-match interview, Dhoni was asked if he had reached the milestone of calling his 10th IPL final in 14 Tests. A little overwhelmed by the generous response from the crowd, Dhoni said that there can never be “another final” in a tournament as big as the IPL. Who knows it could be his last match for CSK. Can he and Fleming pretend for four hours on Sunday that the results don’t matter and that the process works?