Between this season and last year’s Indian Premier League, a lot has changed in Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s career. Besides stepping down as India’s captain in the shorter formats, the wicketkeeper-batsman was replaced by Steve Smith as Rising Pune Supergiant’s skipper.
Coming into IPL 2017, his form was questioned, and so was his diminishing importance in the team. RPS owner Sanjiv Goenka’s brother Harsh Goenka even picked on him, but MS Dhoni did what he does best – play cricket.
Ahead of MS Dhoni’s seventh IPL final, here’s a look at how badass Mahi has been in IPL 2017.
Swift Stumpings
Swift stumping? No one does it better than MS Dhoni.
In the 15 IPL matches so far, Dhoni has effected 13 dismissals from behind the stumps, joint-highest with Robin Uthappa.
Of the thirteen, three of the dismissals have been stumpings.
In one particular match on 16 April, Dhoni pulled off a superb stumping. Royal Challengers Bangalore's AB de Villiers missed the delivery from Imran Tahir, and Dhoni did the rest.
Watch this and more magical stumpings by the Ranchi lad.
Epic Catches
Leaping to unimaginable heights to take blinders or grabbing others’ dropped catches – Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s catches in IPL 10 have, as usual, been a delight to watch.
Watch some of the coolest catches in the videos below.
Mahi The Finisher
Dhoni made a slow start to his IPL 10 campaign with scores of 12*, 5, 11, 5, 28 in Pune’s first five games. But just as the hopes were being lost and ‘retirement’ talk was creeping into the news, Mahi bounced back with a match-winning 61-run knock that handed RPS a thrilling six wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in a last ball thriller on 22 April.
In the crucial Qualifier 1 against Mumbai Indians on 16 May, Dhoni walked into bat when Pune were in a precarious situation at 89/3, and eventually helped them post 162/4. He remained unbeaten on 40 runs off 26 balls.
Captain in Disguise
Manoj Tiwary heaped praise on Mahendra Singh Dhoni for providing the much needed impetus to the RPS innings that proved crucial in their Qualifier 1 win.
Tiwary praised Dhoni’s batting.
The momentum shifted during the last two overs. We were struggling to get that until the 18th, 19th and 20th over where Mahi bhai played some outstanding shots. It was not easy against Bumrah, but he showed why he is such a highly-talented playerManoj Tiwary
But he also went on to point out that “Mahi bhai” had been a great support to Steve Smith, helping him with field placements.
Mahi bhai has been supporting him (Smith) very well. It is evident on the field that he (Dhoni) has been manoeuvring the field placements and keeping them in the right position, while Smith is completely focused on changing the bowlers. He has too much on his plate, and that way, Mahi bhai is guiding each and every player to stand in the right position.Manoj Tiwary
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