IPL History

Mahendra Singh Dhoni is one of the best cricketers of the current generation. Although he started off with a duck in his international debut match against Bangladesh in 2004, there has been no looking back ever since. 

Rising through the ranks, letting his bat and wicket keeping gloves do the talking, he rose from being a reliable wicket-keeper batsman to vice-captain and eventually being the captain of the Indian cricket team quite unexpectedly in 2007. And from there on, there has been no looking back for him. He went on to become the first, and the only captain to lift a hat trick of ICC trophies by winning the Champions trophy in 2013, with the other two being cricket World Cup 2011, and the T20 world cup in 2007.

Ever since IPL was conceptualized and played since 2008, MSD has been the captain of Chennai Super Kings, barring the couple of years when the franchise was disqualified. And there too, he has established that he is second to known when it comes to cricketing acumen and handling pressure situations. 

There have been many nail-biting finishes involving the CSK, where online betting IPL sites put huge odds against them, and they have ended up on the winning side, thanks to MSD, resulting in windfall gains for those who had faith in `Captain Cool´. He has proved time and again why he has been seen as the greatest finishers of the game, especially when it comes to T20.

MSD has scored 554 runs cumulatively in the last over in all IPLs, at an astonishing strike rate of 244, hitting 46 maximums in the process. Here we have a look at some of his best batting performances in the last over in IPL history.

RCB VS CSK 2019

Chasing 161 for victory, Dhoni walked in with CSK in deep trouble. He went on scoring at a brisk pace, and eventually in the last over, Chennai needed 26 runs to win. Dhoni smashed 3 sixes and a boundary of the first five balls from Umesh Yadav. Needing just 2 from the last delivery, Dhoni failed to connect a slower delivery and no runs were scored. Although RCB won the match, MSD had almost got CSK home with his splendid performance, scoring 84 runs off 48 balls.

CSK vs KXIP 2010

It was a must-win game for CSK to secure their place in the semi-finals. Batting first, Punjab scored a massive 192/3 on the back of an unbeaten 88 by Shaun Marsh. Chasing 193 to win, Chennai were in a bit of a spot when Dhoni walked in to bat with the team at 89/3 in the 10th over. Needing 16 runs off the last over to win, Dhoni 4,2,6,6 to hand CSK a victory with two balls to spare. CSK eventually won their first IPL trophy that year.

RPS vs KXIP 2016

Playing for Rising Pune Supergiants in their debut season, MSD single-handedly played a stunning knock against Punjab in Visakhapatnam. Chasing 173, RPS never really looked in contention to win the game with them staring down the barrel at 86/4 in the 14th over. Dhoni then brought out his best, hitting clean boundaries.

 Needing 23 to win off the last over of Axar Patel, Dhoni turned down singles on two occasions in order to keep the strike. Needing 16 of the last 3 balls, Dhoni hit a boundary and two back to back sixes, winning the match and avoiding the embarrassment of a last-place finish for the team.