Sandeep Sharma’s perfect black-hole last ball snatched away victory from the jaws of defeat for Rajasthan Royals on Wednesday. The seamer from Punjab, who was defending 21 runs in the last over of the match 17 at iconic Chepauk Stadium in Chennai, did the almost unthinkable job. This is the first time that Rajasthan Royals have won a match at Chepauk since 2008.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who was at the strike, looked disappointed as he walked back to dugout after a couple of singles instead of the much anticipated ‘six on the last ball’ moment. It was the 200th match for Dhoni as CSK captain and the last ball finish would have been a perfect gift for the fans at Chepauk. The 41-year-old made 32 off 17 balls whereas Ravindra Jadeja made 25 off 15. Both Jadeja and Dhoni are well-experienced in such nervy encounters. Fans were looking very excited even though the required run rate was hovering well over 15!
The 30,000 plus crowd almost fell silent when Dhoni failed to pull off a big hit on the last ball. The frenzy of IPL can be gauged from the fact that Jio Cinema, which is livestreaming the matches, registered a record viewership of 2.2 crore when Dhoni started batting.
After the match, Dhoni had said that there were many dot balls in the middle of the CSK innings and the batters should have taken more singles. Talking about the dew factor, Dhoni said that the batters were not able to encash this and CSK could have done better in this department.
Winning captain Sanju Samson said that the credit for the thrilling match was entirely to the bowlers. He said that despite a tense match, the bowlers kept their cool and didn’t flinch. The fielders also did a good job with crucial catches. Samson said that there were no fond memories for him from Chepauk and he really wanted to win in Chennai.
Talking about the last two overs, Samson said that nothing works against Dhoni. However, when asked about the 200th match milestone, Dhoni said that he was not big on milestones. “How 199 was different from 200,” the CSK skipper added. Thanking ‘almighty’, captain cool added that he was grateful for the longevity in the IPL. Dhoni has now become the only player in IPL history to have captained 200 matches for a single franchise.