MS Dhoni might have handed over the captaincy of CSK to Ravindra Jadeja, but he is still actively involved in field settings and yesterday, his experience and shrewdness was on display again when he moved a fielder to a particular position for the former RCB captain Virat Kohli and it ended up yielding CSK a wicket immediately.
Virat Kohli is someone who likes to play the flick shots a lot against the fast bowlers and MS Dhoni, having played a lot of cricket with Kohli, knew that Kohli might go for an aerial flick again.
With a left-arm fast bowler Mukesh Choudhary bowling from over the wicket and generating a bit of bounce from the back-of-length spot of the pitch, it was a possibility that Kohli might mistime the aerial flick because of extra bounce.
MS Dhoni positioned a fielder at deep square leg for the aerial flick of Virat Kohli
There was no fielder on the square leg boundary when Kohli was about to take a strike against Mukesh, but then MS Dhoni decided to consult the current CSK skipper Ravindra Jadeja and changed the field, stationing a fielder at the deep square leg position.
Mukesh banged the ball slightly back of length which seemed in for Kohli who went for the aerial flick as anticipated and the ball hit the upper portion of his bat, rather than the middle of the bat. Since it hit the upper portion of Kohli’s bat, the ball couldn’t really travel the distance that it would have traveled otherwise.
The fielder Shivam Dube, who was positioned at the deep square leg position, specifically for an aerial flick held the catch beautifully as it went to him at a nice height and Virat, who could have made a significant difference for RCB in the run chase of 217, had to depart early.
The video of MS Dhoni changing the field right before Virat Kohli’s dismissal has gone viral on Twitter as the CSK fans have been sharing it in huge numbers. Here is the video –
Dhoni set field for Kohli and traps him 😍 #IPL2022 #CSKvsRCB #MSDhoni pic.twitter.com/cYKUG270qX
— Ranjeet – Wear Mask😷 (@ranjeetsaini7) April 12, 2022
