Chennai Super Kings bounced back from a defeat in their last game by beating Kings XI Punjab in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match at the Chepauk Stadium in Chennai on Saturday. While Faf Du Plessis and Harbhajan Singh were applauded for their respective good performances with bat and ball, Dhoni played a quick-fire innings to take CSK to a formidable score and also shifted the momentum in his team’s corner. Also Read: Faf du Plessis, Harbhajan Singh power CSK to 22-run win over KXIP Dhoni came to bat in the 14th over of the innings when Ravichandran Ashwin had dismissed Du Plessis and Suresh Raina off successive deliveries. The CSK skipper started cautiously and scored just 6 runs off his first 11 deliveries. Dhoni broke into life on the penultimate delivery of the 18th over when he hit a mini helicopter shot for a boundary off Andrew Tye. Dhoni then took apart Sam Curran in the next over, where CSK score 19 runs. Dhoni slammed a six and couple of boundaries in the over. Also Read: Bails foil MS Dhoni’s stunning attempt to run-out KL Rahul – Watch In the last over, Dhoni hit a boundary off Mohammed Shami as CSK scored 14 from it. Dhoni finished with unbeaten 37 runs off 23 deliveries and his strike-rate at the end of the innings read 160.8.<doc-sep>MS Dhoni's late surge had given Chennai Super Kings a competitive 160 against Kings XI Punjab on a difficult batting pitch at the Chepauk but the defending champions still had the Chris Gayle factor to think about. On Saturday after Dhoni finished strong with the bat, Harbhajan Singh, one of his most trusted bowlers over the years, did the job. | CSK vs KXIP - Match report | In his first over of the game, Harbhajan Singh lured Chris Gayle into a big drive and had him caught behind by MS Dhoni. In the same over, Harbhajan struck again to snare the dangerous Mayank Agarwal and even though KL Rahul and Sarfaraz Khan added 110 for the third wicket, MS Dhoni's off-spinner had taken out two key batsmen to give CSK an upper hand. KL Rahul and Sarfaraz struggled in the middle overs and added only 24 runs in a 5-over period even after they were well set. MS Dhoni, who has seen some sterling Chris Gayle knocks in his time, knew the wicket of the Universe Boss would be the deciding factor. For if Gayle got going, 161 would not have looked like a big challenge - no matter how tricky the pitch was to bat on. "We had to get Universe Boss out. Because with 160 or even 200 on the board, if Chris Gayle gets going, I don't think you can really stop him," MS Dhoni told the broadcasters after the match. "I think it was important for us to get a few wickets in the first six overs and not leak a lot of runs and Bhajji (Harbhajan Singh) gave us that breakthrough. Otherwise, 160 is not much if Chris Gayle gets going." MS Dhoni also knew his best bet against Chris Gayle as an off-spinner. And Harbhajan Singh was a great option to try against one of the fiercest hitters of the cricket ball in world cricket. "The only thing that can save you from Chris Gayle is an off-spinner, especially if it's turning a bit. Other than that, you need somebody who could swing the ball. "I felt Bhajji was really needed there and I felt over the years only the off-spinners have put some pressure on Chris Gayle. Other than that, even if you bowl very quick it really does not matter to him. If you can swing the ball at 128-130 kmph.. he gives you more respect than if bowl very quick," Dhoni said. MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli were not too impressed with the Chennai pitch after the opening game of the 2019 IPL. On Saturday, Dhoni said the pitch was tougher to bat on in the first innings but it got fractionally better in the second innings. "I think the first innings was even tougher (for batting) and as the game progressed and we got into the second half, the pitch slowly got slightly better to bat on. But still it was tough.. it was not a placid wicket where you can just feet there and just hit or swing the bat. I felt it needed a bit of work and the spinners bowled very well for us. "We just had two fast bowlers which meant we had to give them a few runs in the last two or three overs and that responsibility was with the spinners and we were able to accumulate a lot of runs for the fast bowlers," Dhoni said. Also See:<doc-sep>IPL 2019: Umpire Rod Tucker was seen having a chat with MS Dhoni after Ambati Rayudu had backed up too far ( Courtesy by BCCI ) Umpire Rod Tucker spoke to MS Dhoni and possibly issued a polite warning after Ambati Rayudu backed up too far during the last over of the Chennai Super Kings innings against Kings XI Punjab at the Chepauk on Saturday. Incidentally, KXIP skipper R Ashwin had Mankaded Jos Buttler of Rajasthan Royals earlier in the 2019 Indian Premier League and defended his decision despite mixed reactions from the cricket fraternity. The likes of Eoin Morgan, Jason Roy, Shane Warne, Dayle Steyn and Kevin Pietersen were severely critical of Ashwin's Mankading act while others in the Indian cricket circle felt R Ashwin was perfectly justified in doing what he did when the batsman was seeking to gain an extra advantage. On Saturday, Ambati Rayudu was spotted backing up too far even before Mohammed Shami had delivered the ball; he ran over to the striker's end as MS Dhoni completed an easy single. Rod Tucker immediately went over to MS Dhoni and had a brief chat with him. While it was not clear what exactly what spoken, commentators on air said the umpire spoke to Dhoni to issue a warning to Rayudu. Opinions were divided in the cricket world after R Ashwin ran Buttler out in Jaipur. Speaking to AajTak, Ashwin said his conscience was clear after the Mankading controversy. "I think whatever I say is going to raise a few eyebrows. I am sure there have been debates about how far he was down the ground. But I believe Re 1 is still a theft. "Whatever, it is, I have to control my space. I still believe I was right in doing what I did. For me, everything is about my conscience. My conscience is very clear after what I did. There have been a few people speaking about this over and over again," Ashwin told AajTak earlier this week.<doc-sep>IPL 2019, CSK Vs KXIP: MS Dhoni Pulls Off Stunning No-Look Run-Out Only To See This Happen – WATCH Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is known for pulling off seemingly impossible feats in the field, but on Saturday, he was denied a wicket with lady luck favouring Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) batsman KL Rahul during their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019 match at Chepauk. In the 13th over of the KXIP innings, Rahul took off for a single after pushing the fourth ball to the on-side. But Dhoni, ever alert, quickly retrieved the ball and produced his famous no-look run-out attempt. The ball hit the stumps even as Rahul found himself well short of the ground. But the bails remained stuck into the groove to the amazement of everyone. Watch it here: Déjà vu - Dhoni creates magic, but bails still don't fall https://t.co/33WsiNt5e5 via @ipl — gujjubhai (@gujjubhai17) April 6, 2019 The Bails didn't move but that was yet another brilliant work by MSD ... pic.twitter.com/6mxEH49mle — Taimoor Zaman (@taimoorze) April 6, 2019 CSK beat KXIP by 22 runs to register their fourth win in five matches. For in-depth, objective and more importantly balanced journalism, Click here to subscribe to Outlook Magazine<doc-sep>
MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings (CSK) is back to the top of the table with a 22-run win over Ravichandran Ashwin’s Kings XI Punjab at the Chepauk stadium. The visitors were on course when KL Rahul and Sarfraz Khan added a 110 partnership for the third wicket before the former’s dismissal made things more difficult for them. Deepak Chahar and Scott Kuggeleijn held their nerves in the end, but they were buoyed by a brilliant spell from Harbhajan Singh whose two for 17 allowed CSK to make early inroads. Faf Du Plessis’ 38-ball 54 combined with a 60-run stand between Dhoni and Ambati Rayudu took CSK to eventually a winning total. However, during one of the overs when Dhoni and Rayudu were batting, the umpire Rod Tucker was seen talking to the CSK skipper and warned him about something. The incident took place in the last over the first innings when Mohammed Shami was bowling. Rayudu was at the non-strikers’ end and was backing up too far in order to take a quick run. The on-field umpires spotted the same and to avoid a possible ‘mankading’ Tucker was quick to approach Dhoni and tell him about the same. Rayudu, on the other end, wasn’t happy with the umpire’s call and though only one delivery was left in the over, there was chaos in between for a couple of minutes. The replays also clearly showed that Rayudu was backing up too much and was correctly warned by the umpires to avoid any other controversy in the ongoing IPL. The incident proves that the umpires have been made aware after the controversial dismissal of Jos Buttler earlier in the tournament. In Match 4, Ravichandran Ashwin had mankaded Buttler for backing up and a lot of comments were made regarding the ‘Spirit of the game’. Rather it was a legal dismissal but the outburst after the mankading was huge.