Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni pulled off another spectacular catch in the Indian Premier League (IPL) game against Kolkata Knight Riders on Wednesday.
Dhoni dived to his right to take the catch and dismiss KKR player Shivam Mavi and to the awe of commentators and audience alike, he did so without wearing his gloves. He fisted the ball with his bare hands before diving to complete the catch.
“Who says he is old?” was the collective response from the commentary box when Dhoni completed the catch. What was even more remarkable was that this appeared to be a plan chalked along with the bowler Dwayne Bravo.
Bravo, bowling the last over of the innings, bowled a wide fuller length delivery to Shivam Mavi, he went for a wild slog but could only manage an outside edge, Dhoni had taken off his right hand gloves to free his hand for a throw, but he flew towards his right and completed a fine catch to add to his growing collection of wicket-keeping genius.
We are not new to seeing MS Dhoni, flying behind the wickets to take blinders, as he has already proved on numerous occasions as to why he is arguably one of the best in the business.
With that catch, his fourth in the game, he overtook Dinesh Karthik to become the wicket-keeper with most catches in the IPL. He now stands at 104 while Karthik at 103.
Early on in the game MS Dhoni took three more catches of Shubman Gill, Eoin Morgan and the dangerous Andre Russell to apply brakes on the KKR innings as he went on to tie with Dinesh Karthik for most catches in IPL at 103.
He was also involved in a last-ball run out of Varun Charavarthy, who took on Jadeja’s arm, in an attempt to steal a second run.
KKR however were able to put up a respectable total of 167 and some disciplined bowling on their part saw them restrict CSK 10 runs short of the target on 157.
With his efforts in the field, MS Dhoni answered the question marks surrounding his fitness and reminded cricket fans that he still has plenty left to offer.