Former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) star, Matthew Hayden has hinted at MS Dhoni’s injury after a recent clash against Rajasthan Royals (RR). CSK failed to chase down the target by 3 runs at Chennai. During the Men in Yellow’s recent game, Dhoni was seen not running well while taking runs, and somewhat he was seen limping in between the wickets.
However as revealed by CSK’s head coach Stephen Fleming, the former Indian skipper is healing from a ‘knee injury’, which is making it difficult for Dhoni. It was very evident in the match Dhoni was limping, he was not able to run properly during his stint of 32*(17) while chasing a 176-run target against the Royals.
Matthew Hayden points out that MS Dhoni was not looking quick in between the wickets-
“We will not give fans the false expectations that nothing’s wrong. There is definitely something wrong with MS Dhoni. His running between the wickets is usually quite electric, which was not there today,” said the former Australian cricketer.
While in the last clash for Men in Yellow, Dhoni was playing his 200th Indian Premier League (IPL) game as CSK’s skipper, where he batted well and smashed three sixes, but fell short of the target, as RR pacer Sandeep Sharma executed Yorkers well in the last over to see his team over the line.
“As the innings progressed on, we saw him limping quite heavily. There are some question marks, that I am sure that MS Dhoni will have to answer and the medical staff will get straight into it. He will want to keep playing in the tournament,” he further added.
Meanwhile, CSK’s head coach is fully assured of Dhoni continuing to play in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023, “He will stay fit, they will do some netting in Ranchi, but his main pre-season [fitness] is done a month before when he comes to Chennai,” said Fleming.
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Rewind Dhoni's late blitz from #CSKvRR & keep watching #IPLJioCinema ?#TATAIPL #IPL2023 | @msdhoni pic.twitter.com/k09CU93AC5
— JioCinema (@JioCinema) April 12, 2023
While coming to the much, both CSK’s star duo of Ravindra Jadeja and Dhoni were set with 24 & 18 runs respectively, the first two balls resulted in extras as Sandeep was trying to bowl away from Dhoni’s arc, and then he was clobbered for two sixes. The bowler, however, held his nerves and came ’round the wicket’, did not concede another boundary as RR sneaked victory at CSK’s home.
Now, the Chennai-based side has lost and won two games each, in IPL 2023. Now, they will be up against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in Bengaluru on April 17.