The fans around the nation, it seems, were not the only ones who were sitting on the edge of their seat when Mahendra Singh Dhoni was playing a gem of an innings against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Saturday (April 22).
With pressure piling on Dhoni for his poor show with the bat in the first five matches of the Indian Premier League, the former India skipper did not walk in a good situation to bat in.
Chasing 176, the Supergiant were reeling at 87 for two in the eleventh over when Dhoni arrived at the crease, with his team needing 90 runs from the final 54 balls. The dismissal of the in-form Rahul Tripathi and Ben Stokes only piled up the pressure on Dhoni.
The 35-year old batsman, whose strike rate of 87.14 this season was the worst among all batsmen having faced 50 deliveries, began slowly and had scored 17 from 15 balls when the fifteenth over ended.
The Pressure was built on Pune, as they needed 62 runs from the final five overs and the stage was perfectly set for the batting legend to mark his arrival.
32 runs in the next three overs brought down the equation to 30 runs from the final two overs before the former Pune skipper took on Sunrisers’ best bowler- Bhuvneshwar Kumar. He blasted the first three balls for a couple of fours and a six as he and Manoj Tiwary collected 19 runs from the penultimate over.
11 runs were needed in the final over and considering Dhoni’s form, it was expected to be a cakewalk for the batting side. However, the case was a bit different. Manoj Tiwary scored five runs from the first two balls but two singles in the next two balls brought down the equation to six runs from the final two balls.
The match had reached its climax and not only the fans but also the Rising Pune Supergiant dugout especially their skipper Steve Smith was also looking tensed. Smith was looking restless when Dhoni took a couple of runs from the penultimate delivery. But all the tension and the worries turned into ecstasy when Dhoni hit the final ball for a four to take his team home.
This was Pune’s second consecutive and third overall win in this tournament. As expected, Smith was delighted with the win and was seen clapping his hands after Dhoni hit the final delivery for a boundary.
Here is a clip of those final moments of the match:
https://twitter.com/cricketfreak19/status/855842954002485249