MS Dhoni got a late cameo to the Chennai Super Kings edge closer to an IPL play-off berth with a 27-run win over Delhi Capitals on Wednesday.
Dhoni, who scored 20 off nine balls, and Ravindra Jadeja, who scored 21, combined for a crucial seventh-wicket stand of 38 to propel Chennai to 167-8.
“This is what my job is, I have told them this is what I am supposed to do, don’t make me run a lot and it has been working,” Dhoni said of his role at number eight.
“This is what I need to do, happy to contribute.”
The Sri Lankan quick Matheesha Pathirana took three wickets to help restrict Delhi to 140-8, allowing Chennai to maintain their second-place standing in the 10-team table with seven wins in 12 matches.
Delhi, who began the season with five losses and are led by David Warner, remain at the bottom of the standings and are all but eliminated from the playoff race.
Four of the best teams qualify for the postseason.
Left-handed Warner was dismissed for a duck on the second delivery by Deepak Chahar, who also dismissed the previous match’s victor, Phil Salt, for 17.
Mitchell Marsh, an Australian all-rounder, was run out for five runs, but impact sub Manish Pandey and Rilee Rossouw attempted to revive the chase with 59 runs before impact player Pathirana broke through.
“This is the fifth or sixth time we have lost a wicket in the first over,” Warner said after his team’s seventh loss.
“And it was us throwing our wickets away. We lost a wicket to a run-out. We threw wickets away.”
Pathirana, an up-and-coming Sri Lankan fast bowler dubbed “Baby Malinga” for his action resembling that of former pace ace Lasith Malinga, pinned Pandey lbw with his signature yorker and finished with 3-37.
Jadeja defeated Rossouw with a left-arm spin to halt the chase and was named the game’s most valuable player.
Before Shivam Dube, who smashed 25 off 12 balls, and Ambati Rayudu, who hit 23, stood out in an attacking stand of 36, Chennai regularly lost wickets.
However, it was Dhoni and the left-handed Jadeja who attacked the opposition with a late blitz that yielded 39 runs for Chennai in the final three overs.
With his two sixes off of left-arm quick Khaleel Ahmed, the 41-year-old Dhoni, who many believe is playing his final IPL game, riled up a near-capacity crowd.
Dhoni has led Chennai to four IPL championships and is drawing large crowds to every venue in India.
