Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) won’t have a showdown in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season until April 11, but the buildup has already begun. With a little over a month left before the match between two of the greatest IPL teams, KKR vice-captain Venkatesh Iyer has narrated how MS Dhoni outsmarted him in the IPL 2023 season.
MS Dhoni: Master at reading the game
Playing in Chennai, KKR were already out of the playoff qualification contention. However, they were still playing for pride. Venkatesh came to the crease in the first over and lasted just 4 balls, courtesy of Dhoni’s tactical genius.
“Dhoni took out a fielder from deep square leg and placed him at short third, slightly away from the spot where short third usually is. The next ball, I hit straight into short third’s hands,” Venkatesh told The Cricket Monthly.
The target was a mere 145, and Dhoni knew he had to do something out of the ordinary. So he played with Venkatesh’s mind. He forced the southpaw to go for the same shot, which had earned him a boundary on the ball before.
“Post the game I asked Dhoni why he placed that fielder in that spot, and he had a proper answer for it. He was trying to understand the impact of the ball from my bat, the angles. His reading of angles is just out of this world, and he knew that if I hit this shot, it had to go in that direction, so he had a fielder put there. This is being proactive. This is real captaincy: understanding what a batter is doing,” the KKR vice-captain added.
Venkatesh Iyer wowed by CSK legend
This time, he didn’t middle the ball. The edge flew to Ravindra Jadeja at short third man, and CSK had the breakthrough. KKR went on to win the match, but Venkatesh will remember that moment and might just look to recreate such tactical brilliance now that he’s part of KKR’s leadership group.
“That was the cunning of Dhoni. I could have waited for a couple of balls, but no, the next ball, I hit it there (chuckles), and it just happened. The cameras showed the exact picture of how the field changed, and the very next ball I hit there. It is up to the batsman to understand why certain things are being done (on the field),” Venkatesh concluded.
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