Former captain of the Chennai Super Kings MS Dhoni might have ended on the losing side once again in IPL 2022 but managed to become just the 2nd cricketer in history to play in 350 T20 matches. Dhoni follows Mumbai Indians and Team India captain Rohit Sharma to achieve this rare milestone, with the latter appearing in 372 T20 games this date.
The IPL 2022 season is the first time in the history of the T20 league that Dhoni is not leading the CSK. Dhoni is the second most successful captain in the history of the league having led CSK to four IPL title wins. Only Rohit (5) has won more IPL titles as captain than him.
Indian players with most T20 appearances:
Rohit Sharma - 372
MS Dhoni - 350
Out of the 350 T20s for Dhoni, 98 have come at the international stage for Team India. The wicket-keeper batter had led India to glory at the inaugural T20 World cup in 2007. The ongoing match is Dhoni 217th game for CSK. He has also played 30 matches for the Rising Pune Super Giants. He has also played a few games for his state Jharkhand in the shortest format.
Swift. Sharp. Sensational! @msdhoni just did the MS Dhoni thing to complete a stunning run-out! #TATAIPL | #CSKvPBKS | @ChennaiIPL
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— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 3, 2022
Punjab Kings thrashed defending champions CSK by 54 runs with Liam Livingstone scoring a fifty at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday (April 3). Though the dew has been a problem for all teams bowling second in this edition of the IPL, especially in the matches being played here, the Punjab Kings` bowlers came up with a superb performance to rattle CSK early on and maintained their stranglehold despite a half-century by Shivam Dube.
“We got to a target we thought was defendable and the seam bowlers set it up for us. We wanted to be aggressive and as exciting as we can. Nice to get a few today, but as I said the seamers set it up in the powerplay,” said Livingstone, who blasted a brilliant 60 to help Punjab Kings recover from 16/2 to reach 180/8 in 20 overs.
Livingstone was delighted to contribute with the bat as he did not get many runs in the first two games. “The first two games didn’t go my way, but (it’s) nice to contribute to a win. We got to a target we thought was defendable and the seam bowlers set it up for us. I’ve been swinging hard, so nice to get it off the middle today. I play my own way and I struggled a bit with Rajasthan as well. Hopefully, this will bring some confidence.”
(with PTI inputs)
