Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni turned the clocks back by hitting consecutive sixes in the first two balls he faced against Lucknow Super Giants in match no. 7 of Indian Premier League 2023 on Monday. Coming out to bat at no. 8 in the final over of the first innings during CSK vs LSG at Chepauk, MS Dhoni got off the mark with a maximum over the wide deep third man. He then smashed another six in the very next ball off a pull shot which went 30 yards over the leg side rope.
While Dhoni left the entire Chepauk crowd in awe of his sixes in IPL 2023, LSG mentor Gautam Gambhir’s reaction to his shots became a major talking point for fans. In pictures currently going viral on social media, Gambhir can be seen showing no emotions with a poker face, while being seated in the LSG dugout. Gambhir’s reaction to the 41-year-old cricketer’s sixes sparked off a massive meme fest on the Internet. Meanwhile, click here to watch the back-to-back sixes by the legendary India captain against LSG.
IPL 2023: MS Dhoni scripts history as CSK earn first victory of season
Dhoni was unfortunately dismissed in the third ball of his quickfire knock, but his sixes meant Chennai Super Kings set a massive target of 218 runs for LSG. In the meantime, Dhoni became the seventh batsman ever to score over 5000 runs in Indian Premier League history. After playing a total of 236 games since its inception in 2008, Dhoni has scored 5004 runs in 208 innings, at an average of 39.09 and strike rate of 135.53.
The 41-year-old is the fifth Indian cricketer to score over 5000 IPL runs in his career after Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, and Suresh Raina. Kohli is the highest run-scorer in IPL history with 6706 runs in 224 games, while Dhawan sits second on the list with 6284 runs. Warner is third in the list with 5937 runs and is followed by Rohit (5880 runs), Suresh (5528 runs), and AB (5162 runs) respectively.
IPL 2023: A special homecoming for Chennai Super Kings
It is worth mentioning that Dhoni’s back-to-back sixes and CSK’s thumping win marked a special return for the four-time IPL champions to their home ground. “Overall I think it was a perfect first game that happened and it was a full house for the first game in 5 or 6 years since we’ve been here,” said Dhoni at the post-match presentation show. IPL has returned to its home and away format for the league stage of the 2023 season for the first time since 2019.
