Mahendra Singh Dhoni, especially after donning the captain’s hat, seldom showed his emotions. His calm, composed and calculated countenance had earned him the title of ‘Captain Cool’. However, he is human after all and emotions do come out some time or the other howsoever hard you try to hide them. Dhoni’s former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) teammate Suresh Raina shared one such incident when the ace wicketkeeper-batsman and leader of men could not keep his happiness in check.
The incident dates way back to 2010 when CSK were playing the erstwhile King XI Punjab in their last group match. Dhoni beat the KXIP bowlers black and blue, scoring an unbeaten 54 off a mere 29 balls. His knock included five fours and a couple of sixes and helped CSK chase down a stiff target of 193 set by their opposition.
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Dhoni won the match with a six and punched his helmet as he let feelings come gushing out. That was Raina’s favourite Dhoni moment and the former India and CSK batter revealed that he had not seen ‘Captain Cool’ get so emotional even when he got embroiled in an argument.
“I was in the dressing room. He hit the six in Dharamshala during that IPL match and punched his helmet. I never saw him doing that ever, even when he used to practice in nets or if he got caught up in some fight. That meant something to him. And it was a learning lesson for all of us on how important it is to take your team to win from a pressure situation,” Raina said on JioCinema’s ‘My Time with Dhoni’ programme.
Raina, often called ‘Mr IPL’ for his exploits in the tournament, played a big role in that match, scoring 46 runs off just 27 balls with five fours and three sixes.
The victory against KXIP helped CSK qualify for the semi-finals, where they beat defending champions Deccan Chargers, and then Sachin Tendulkar’s Mumbai Indians to win the first of their four IPL crowns.
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Recently another former CSK member shared an instance when Dhoni turned emotional. This was before the 2018 edition of the IPL and CSK were back in the fray after spending two years in the wilderness due to a suspension.
“There was one moment when MS Dhoni got up and spoke at the first team function that we had. You could see how much it meant to him, he got emotional around how much it meant for him to CSK to get back together,” said Australian allrounder Shane Watson, according to a Hindustan Times report.
Dhoni’s words charged the players up. “Then the first game against MI (Mumbai Indians), Dwayne Bravo pulled the rabbit out of the hat, got us home out of nowhere. The belief of immediate. We got the team, we got the players, and we had good performances,” Watson remembered.
The yellow brigade went all the way that year and lifted their third IPL crown. Watson played a stellar part in the final with a sparkling century. CSK added a fourth title in 2021.
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