'Didn't Know it Was My 200th as CSK Captain': MS Dhoni Says Milestones Don't Matter to Him

Mahendra Singh Dhoni was felicitated by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for leading the side in 200 Indian Premier League (IPL) matches.

On Wednesday, MS Dhoni tried his best to take CSK to victory but fell agonisingly short as Rajasthan Royals (RR) won by 3 runs in match number 17 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

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Recovering from the setback of losing Rituraj Gaikwad, their top scorer so far, for eight runs, but recovering to 78/1 thanks to Devon Conway and Ajinkya Rahane, CSK reached a stage with 40 needed off the last 12 deliveries, Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja pulled them to 21 off six and then seven off three deliveries. It boiled down to five runs off the final delivery faced by Dhoni when Sandeep Sharma, who had started the final over with two wides, bowled a good yorker to deny Dhoni the glory on his milestone day.

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In fact, Dhoni is the only captain in IPL history to lead the same side in 200 matches.

After the match when asked how it feels, MSD said: “I really didn’t know it was my 200th and milestones don’t really matter for me, it is about how you’re performing and the results."

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At the toss, he had said: “It feels good and also I feel the crowd has been fantastic. Also the fact that we started in the old stadium, it was very hot and humid. But now it feels like we’re playing in Switzerland. It’s good to play. We have seen cricket change – how T20 was played at that point of time till now, a lot has changed."

As for the game, Dhoni felt that the CSK batters should take more responsibility in chasing down big totals.

“I think in the middle overs we needed a bit more strike rotation, there wasn’t much for the spinners but they had experienced spinners and we could not rotate strike. It was not that difficult and the ownership (of the loss) should come from the batters," MS Dhoni said at the post-match presentation.

“It was good that we could reach striking distance as we were the last pair. It really affects NRR when you get to the last phase of the tournament," he added.

(With inputs from Agencies)

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