In the final over of the innings, MS Dhoni removed one of his gloves to keep to Dwayne Bravo. This is a practice that MS Dhoni has been doing in the last six-eight years in international cricket. With just one glove, MS Dhoni showed that he can still break records at will. In the fifth ball of the final over, Shivam Mavi slogged a short of a length cutter outside off. The ball flew to the right of MS Dhoni who leapt and fisted the ball with his bare hand. After that, he dived to his right and took a fantastic catch.
The athleticism was simply brilliant and many commentators at that time said, “Is he really old?” The catch gave Dwayne Bravo his 150th IPL wicket, making him the third bowler after Lasith Malinga and Amit Mishra to go past 150 wickets in the IPL. It was a great day for Dhoni behind the stumps as he took four catches and effected a run-out of the final ball.
However, MS Dhoni also created a new record as he equalled Dinesh Karthik for the most catches by a keeper in IPL history. With the four catches, he briefly overtook Dinesh Karthik’s tally of 103 catches in the IPL. Due to the superb performance by MS Dhoni, he had 104 catches. During Chennai Super Kings’ chase, Karthik took the catch of Faf du Plessis to come on level terms with MS Dhoni.
Tributes pour in
The fans on social media continued to hail MS Dhoni as he created one more record in the IPL. Both Dinesh Karthik and MS Dhoni played out a great battle in Abu Dhabi and it was Karthik who came out on top in this contest as Kolkata Knight Riders beat Chennai Super Kings by 10 runs.
This win boosted Kolkata Knight Riders to the third spot in the points table while Chennai Super Kings remained in fifth spot with four losses in six games. This loss has put immense pressure on MS Dhoni as they have to win at least six out of their remaining eight games to have a chance for the playoffs.
After the end of the match, Karthik said there were some key performances that played a part in the win and added that one needs to back players. “There are some key players for every team. Narine is one for us. Least we can do is back him. 2-3 poor games, doesn't matter. Good to see Tripathi do the job at the top. Good thing about Russ is he's very versatile. He can bat slightly up, slightly down. Our batting is very fluid. I started at three, today I batted at seven. The way those guys batted at the start, they batted very well. Back end I've a lot of trust in Sunil and Varun, paid off,” Karthik said.
