Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) skipper MS Dhoni has achieved milestones after milestones during his ongoing cricketing career. The widely-acclaimed cricketer is known for his leadership qualities apart from his agility while donning the gloves. However, he has been in a splendid form this season with the bat, by bailing out his team most of the times with CSK topping the IPL 2019 points table.
With defending champions making things worse for the opposition, Dhoni has played a significant role to strike the chords. Interestingly, CSK has mostly lost those games in which Dhoni couldn’t partake due to unavoidable circumstances.
Given his sheer quality and consistency, Dhoni over the years had won games during the tense run chases.
MS Dhoni’s affair with the CSK:
So far, CSK holds a major record of making it to the playoffs. Furthermore, it reflects how Dhoni’s inclusion has benefited the team in desperate times.
The 37-year-old Dhoni is the leading run-scorer for the yellow brigade. In 11 matches, Dhoni has accumulated 358 runs at an incredible average of 119.33. He has struck three half-centuries in this season despite missing twice in the twelfth edition of the IPL.
On the other side, Dhoni has been remarkable behind the stumps. In short, he has defied the physics which his quick reflexes. However, Dhoni has further made it a norm to whip off the bails in a flash to create miseries for the batsmen more often than not.
Over the years, he has impressed many with his trait which further gained him wide admiration from the former cricketers including legendary Australian wicketkeeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist.
The prominent middle-order batsman Dhoni is on the verge of surpassing an all-time IPL record held by Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) skipper Dinesh Karthik.
The Ranchi-star has 128 dismissals in 186 matches to his name, whereas, Karthik sits on the top with 130 dismissals in 180 IPL matches.
Besides, Karthik’s teammate Utthapa has claimed 90 dismissals in 175 matches. But Uthappa has already given up his wicketkeeping role since 2017.
With three dismissals away on achieving the landmark, Dhoni has a maximum of three matches to play before the completion of the IPL, whereas, Karthik’s KKR has a slimmer of the chances to make it to the playoffs.
KKR will take on Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) on May 3 in a must-win game. However, CSK will take on Ravichandran Ashwin’s team on May 5 in Mohali.
Here’s the table with two dismissals away to equal Karthik’s:
| S.No | Player | Matches | Dismissals | Catches | Stumpings |
| 1 | Dinesh Karthik | 180 | 130 | 100 | 30 |
| 2 | MS Dhoni | 186 | 128 | 90 | 38 |
| 3 | Robin Uthappa | 175 | 90 | 58 | 32 |