The wait was worthwhile in the end. Fans who braved the rains wearing yellow jerseys to show their support to Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his Chennai Super Kings (CSK) returned home jubilant, celebrating the team’s incredible fifth Indian Premier League (IPL) title triumph well into the early hours of Tuesday.
The IPL 2023 final, which was scheduled to begin on May 28 at 7.30 pm and end four hours later, actually started 24 hours later on the reserve day on May 29 and ended six hours later after more than two hours of rain interruption when CSK began their pursuit of the formidable Gujarat Titans’ total of 214 for four.
The rain interruption reduced 5 overs and revised CSK’s target to 171 in 15 overs, the challenge taken by Dhoni’s men in right earnest. And, when CSK needed 13 off the last over with the two big-hitters Shivam Dube and Ravindra Jadeja in the middle and the wily, experienced T20 bowler Mohit Sharma (a former CSK bowler) at the crease, the Titans still ahead. The first four deliveries yielded three singles. Titans still had the upper hand and the coaching staff including mentor Gary Kirsten were smiling.
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It was a match CSK could have lost, considering Mohit’s experience in the death overs and his yorkers being difficult to score off. However, occasion got the better of even the experienced Mohit, whose attempted yorker did not fall in place and Jadeja smashed him straight for a six. Mohit erred with the last ball, bowling a full toss down the leg side for Jadeja to pick the gap in the fine leg region and score the winning runs, triggering wild celebrations in not only the CSK dugout but the entire Narendra Modi Stadium, and millions around the country who stayed awake to watch the winning hit coming past 1.30 am and to see the trophy being presented at 3 am.
Dhoni fever
This IPL, which has seen many remarkable individual and collective performances, stands out for one person, the one and only Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Many believed that this would be his last IPL and the ‘Dhoni, Dhoni’ chants grew louder and louder every time he stepped onto the turf, first in his sleeveless training trunks with his match T-shirt clutched in his hand that he changes to just before the toss.
Whenever Dhoni walked in to give the toss interview, a post-match presentation interview, or to bat, the Dhoni roar among the crowd was deafening. Not only at Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium but across all the other seven centres where they played their away matches. Such was the Dhoni fever that the away matches seemed like home games for CSK as the spectators turned out in a sea of yellow rather than their home team colours.
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The 41-year-old Dhoni kept everyone guessing when he said at the presentation after receiving the winners’ cheque of Rs 20 crore: “Circumstantially if you see, this is the best time for me to announce my retirement. But the amount of love and affection I have been shown wherever I have been this year, the easy thing for me to say would be to say, ‘Thank you very much’, but the tough thing for me is to work hard for another 9 months and come back and play at least one more season of IPL. But a lot depends on the body, I have 6-7 months to decide. It will be more like a gift from my side, it's not easy for me but that's a gift. The way they've shown their love and affection, I think that's something that I need to do for them.”
When Dhoni decides to give it back, he becomes unstoppable. When he began training for this year’s IPL after last playing in the 2022 season, when CSK finished ninth among 10 teams, and nothing in between, many doubted his reflexes, his fitness, etc. But as he has shown time again with his flashy stumping, including dismissing Shubman Gill in the final with just 0.12 second reaction time to flick the bails and catching the Orange Cap winner short of the crease, Dhoni is still the best wicketkeeper around. He has not lost his reflexes as far as wicket keeping was concerned.
And, the sixes he hit coming towards the end, 10 of them in the 57 deliveries he faced this entire IPL, and entertaining the crowd, showed all’s well with his batting too.
Leading from the front
And what of his leadership? Dhoni is loved not only by his teammates but also by the opposition who have benefitted from his words of advice during their interactions with him during the 2-month long tournament. Take for instance how Dhoni’s piece of advice benefitted Suryakumar Yadav, from those four first-ball ‘ducks’ to producing match-winning knocks for Mumbai Indians.
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Yadav replied to a question from Moneycontrol about what his conversations with Dhoni were: “When we played them first in Mumbai, it’s funny. We didn’t speak about cricket. He asked me if everything was okay at home, if everything was okay between my ears, if my mind was okay. And secondly, he asked me what car I was going to buy next. It’s always good and fun to chat with him. In the second match when we went to Chennai, we had a long conversation. He always told me to be grounded and never forget my roots.”
Dhoni’s care for others and the joy he partakes when others succeed lift the personality of others. In his own style, he made the retiring Ambati Rayudu collect the trophy from the BCCI president Roger Binny and secretary Jay Shah while he took a step back was Dhoni’s way of rewarding the Hyderabadi veteran for his dedicated services to CSK over the years.
Rayudu’s 8-ball 19 on Monday night including two sixes and one four in the 13th over off Mohit was as crucial as Jadeja’s winning six and four; and as crucial as the opening partnership between Devon Conway and Ruturaj Gaikwad, whose 74-run stand in the title clash was an important part of their combined 849 runs in 15 innings this entire season.
Dhoni’s encouragement of Ajinkya Rahane and giving Shivam Dube a free hand went a long way in CSK being consistent with their results in the league and winning the title, helping Dhoni level with Rohit Sharma of Mumbai Indians for captaining his side to most IPL titles (5).
Rahane justified Dhoni’s faith by scoring vital runs at No.3, striking at 172.48 while Dube smashed 35 sixes, the most by a CSK player this IPL and second most in the tournament behind RCB captain Faf du Plessis’s 36.
Team effort
While CSK may not have the Orange Cap or Purple Cap winner, it has been a collective effort that makes it a successful team. Their bowling department, though scratchy in patches, did remarkably well to bounce back with the constant encouragement from Dhoni behind the stumps. The emergence of Tushar Deshpande (21 wickets) in the Power Play or the Sri Lankan Matheesha Pathirana (19 wickets) at the death overs would not have been possible without Dhoni’s faith in them.
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In its 16 completed seasons of IPL, one thing has remained constant. Dhoni as its skipper even while the other franchises have changed their captains. Dhoni was captain of CSK in 2008. He led CSK to title triumphs in 2010, 2011, 2018, 2021 and 2023. He capped his 250th IPL match in the final in a memorable fashion.
Not one to show emotions, even Dhoni was overcome by the situation that he did not watch the last ball, closed his eyes in prayer, stayed still even after Jadeja hit the winning four, allowed all his players to run into the field, and after gathering his thoughts that CSK are the champions got up from his seat to lift Jadeja and give him a bear hug.
After all, Dhoni is also a human being! And CSK is a champion team!
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