MS Dhoni meets Sanjiv Goenka as Rishabh Pant gets LSG owner’s supporting hand on shoulder despite defeat

Mahendra Singh Dhoni turned back the clock once again and helped Chennai Super Kings snap their five-match losing streak to outclass Lucknow Super Giants on Monday night. The legendary wicketkeeper batter, who has been reinstated as CSK skipper after Ruturaj Gaikwad‘s injury, smashed an unbeaten 26 runs off 11 balls to take over the line. Dhoni came out to bat in the 16th over and didn’t take much time to begin the business and smashed back-to-back boundaries after cautiously facing the first two deliveries.

The five-time champions were under the scanner before the LSG clash after losing five matches in a row, but a nervy win over LSG came out as a sigh of relief for them to put the campaign back on track.

After leading his team to win, Dhoni caught up with LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka as the two go back a long way. The legendary wicketkeeper played for Goenka’s former IPL team, Rising Pune Supergiants, and also led them in the first season they played before getting sacked ahead of the second and final.

The two had a chat with each other as several photos and videos went viral on social media. LSG skipper Rishabh Pant was also part of the conversation while a photo went around where Goenka can be seen putting his hand on the captain’s shoulders while chatting with Dhoni.

MS Dhoni turns back clock

Meanwhile, Dhoni’s cameo of four boundaries and a six brought CSK back into the game when it was starting to slip from their reach. The skipper brought down the target to 31 off three overs when he smashed a one-handed six to Thakur’s final ball of the 17th over. Thakur was smacked for 19 runs in the 19th over in which Bishnoi couldn’t hold onto a regulation catch of Dhoni. Dube sealed the win with a cover-driven boundary off Avesh Khan.

After the match, Dhoni asked the league organisers to prepare better pitches that encourage shot-making, saying no team wants to play “timid” cricket.

“One of the reasons could be that the Chennai wicket is slightly on the slower side. When we have played away from home, the batting unit has done slightly better. Maybe we need to play on wickets that are slightly better so that it’ll give the batters confidence to play their shots. You don’t want to play timid cricket,” Dhoni said in the post-match presentation.