In the past ten years, the Indian Premier League (IPL) has produced a huge bunch of talented cricketers. This league could also be termed as the revolution in the Indian cricket which has increased people’s interest towards T20 cricket. It has also welcomed numerous overseas players to play for different Indian franchises and over the time, players like AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, DJ Bravo, Chris Lynn etc. have become the favourites of the Indian fans, but there is one cricketer who has been ruling our hearts right from the start of this league in 2008 and he is none other than Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
MS Dhoni has played all the 10 seasons of IPL right from the year 2008 when he was purchased for whooping Rs 6 crore by the India Cements-owned Chennai Super Kings. He captained the side for 8 years until the team was banned by BCCI due to some account-declaration issues. Later in 2016, he got a chance to captain the newly joined Rising Pune Supergiant in 2016. But this year, he was freed from his duties and the captaincy was given to Aussie skipper Steven Smith.
MS Dhoni captained CSK for all the 8 years in IPL
During his tenure as a captain of CSK, he added several feathers to his cap. He is the second player after Suresh Raina who has played the playoffs round 9 times in the past 10 years. And this year, it will be for the 7th time that MS Dhoni is going to play the IPL finals.
Let’s look at past instances where he reached the playoffs:
2008: MS Dhoni played the finals in the opening season but the team lost the game against Rajasthan Royals by 3 wickets.
2009: He played the semifinals against the Royal Challengers Bangalore but the team lost by 6 wickets.
2010: Dhoni, as a captain, lifted the IPL trophy for the first time in his career. CSK defeated Mumbai Indians by 22 runs
CSK won the final for the first time in 2010 in the IPL
2011: Dhoni and his team defended their title for the second time in a row and became the champion after beating Royal Challengers Bangalore by 22 runs.
Champions again! CSK won the 2011 IPL trophy
2012: Dhoni played the finals but lost against Kolkata Knight Riders by 5 wickets.
2013: Dhoni played another final but again it was a hard luck as CSK lost against Mumbai Indians by 23 runs.
2014: Dhoni played the playoffs again but couldn’t go beyond the qualifiers as they lost it against Kings XI Punjab by 24 runs.
2015: Mahendra Singh Dhoni & Co. again made into the final for the sixth time but unfortunately, lost against Mumbai Indians by 41 runs.
2016: This was the first time when Dhoni and his team didn’t even qualify for the playoffs and ended with 10 points in the points table.
2017: And this year, for the first time in the history of IPL, Mahi is once again reached into the playoffs but not as a CAPTAIN. He played a phenomenal knock of 40 runs in the qualifier 1 and now he’ll be playing the finals for the 7th time in IPL on May 21.
For the first time, MS Dhoni to play an IPL final not as a CAPTAIN!
Also, he could be the second player after Rohit Sharma who would have lifted the IPL trophy both as a captain and a player.
Well Played mate! MS Dhoni and Rohit after qualifier 1
In all these 10 years, apart from being the most successful captain of this tournament, MS Dhoni has been a great batsman. In 158 matches, he has scored 3551 runs at an average of 38.18. He has a strike rate of 137.05 and has scored 17 half-centuries. He has also hit 250 fours and 156 sixes and his best score till date is 70 not out against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the year 2011.
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