MS Dhoni proves ‘short and sweet’ is the way forward in IPL 2024.

MS Dhoni, for the second successive time, promoted himself ahead of Ravindra Jadeja – yes, he can still do that! MS Dhoni appears to have realised that batting way down the order is not going to help Chennai Super Kings much. The match against Mumbai Indians this past Sunday is a classic example of how he can make a massive difference with the bat at the right number. Dhoni, for the second successive time, promoted himself ahead of Ravindra Jadeja — yes, he can still do that! In the previous matches, the allrounder had been scoring at a modest strike rate, never threatening the opposition. In a couple of matches, even Sameer Rizvi batted ahead of Dhoni. Having probably those matches in mind and how Jadeja’s batting strike rate was problematic for CSK, against MI Dhoni walked out to bat ahead of the India allrounder at No.6. He had done the same against Kolkata Knight Riders last week but by the time he had walked out to bat, the match was almost CSK’s and he had nothing much to do. Anyway, on Sunday, although he played just four balls, he scored at an astonishing strike rate of 500, including three consecutive sixes off Hardik Pandya in the last over, and his batting impacted the outcome of the match greatly. CSK eventually won the match by 20 runs. If not for those 20 runs of his, who knows what would have happened? It wouldn’t be wrong to say that his innings proved to be more important in the context of the game than that of Rohit Sharma who scored 105 not out off 63 balls with a strike rate of around 167. Yes, Matheesha Pathirana bowled exceptionally well to help CSK win but a good total of 206 on the board, applying the scoreboard pressure on the opposition batsmen all the time, also helped him in equal measure. The time has also come to realise that the T20 format is not about big individual scores. It has never been actually. It’s just that the realisation has hit home only in recent years. If those runs come at a strike rate of, say, around 200, they make sense. But if a batsman has played 60 balls – half the available deliveries in an innings – and they just score 100 runs, more often than not, they will end up on the losing side. Virat Kohli’s century against Rajasthan Royals the other day reinforces the point. Like Rohit, Kohli carried the bat with 113 of 72 balls at a strike rate of 156.94. RR comfortably won the match with five balls to go, with Jos Buttler scoring 100* at a strike rate of 172.41. The Englishman didn’t really have to up the ante in light of a modest 183 RCB had put on the board. Thanks to Kohli, RCB were at least 20 runs short.