Chennai Super Kings (CSK) skipper, MS Dhoni is healing from a ‘Knee Injury’ according to head coach Stephen Fleming, which is making it difficult for the Ex-Indian skipper in running between the wickets, as it was very evident in the match Dhoni was limping, he was not able to run properly during his stint of 32*(17) in the match, eventually CSK lost the game by 3 runs against Rajasthan Royals (RR) while chasing 176 runs.
CSK’s head coach Stephen Fleming praised MS Dhoni for managing himself-
“He is nursing a knee injury, which you can see in some of his movement, which is hindering him somewhat,” Fleming said after the game. “But still what you saw today is a great player for us. His fitness has always been very professional,” said Fleming.
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 and defended 21 runs successfully.
A warrior. A veteran. A champion – The One and Only! ?
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— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) April 13, 2023
“He comes a month before the tournament starts, so he doesn’t get the opportunity to do a lot [before that],” Fleming said. “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,”
“And he works his way back into match-form and I think you can still see he’s playing pretty well. So we never have any doubts about the way he manages himself and he always gets himself up to speed,” he further added.
While coming to the 20th over, both CSK’s star duo of Ravindra Jadeja and Dhoni were set with 24 & 18 runs respectively, the first two balls were wides as Sandeep was trying to bowl away from Dhoni’s arc, and then his deliveries went for two sixes by CSK’s skipper. The bowler, however, held his nerves and came ’round the wicket’, did not concede another boundary as RR sneaked victory in 4 times champions’ home turf.
While, in the CSK vs RR clash, South African fast bowler, Sisanda Magala bowled only two overs against the Royals before leaving the field with an injured finger. He is set to be out for at least two weeks. He had incidentally joined the CSK squad as a replacement player for another player, New Zealand’s Kyle Jamieson. Super Kings are already without left-arm seamer Mukesh Choudhary who will also miss the entire IPL season, along with Deepak Chahar, who pulled his hamstring.
“For us again, it’s losing another player – that’s two games in a row – and we’re already pretty thin, so we’d like it [injuries] to stop. Magala’s hand was split, unfortunately, so he was unable to bowl those last two overs. And the same with Deepak Chahar in the last game, so we’re operating on pretty thin resources. But we’re not the only team to have that,” Fleming said on CSK’s injury concerns.
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.