LUCKNOW For ‘Thala’ Dhoni, every city is his home turf. After receiving overwhelming support at other IPL venues, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was welcomed with the loudest of the cheer at city’s Atal Bihari Vajpaee Ekana International Stadium as well. On Wednesday, several Dhoni fans shunned city affiliations and wore the yellow jersey to support their favourite ‘Captain Cool’ in the match between Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and CSK.
Ahead of the match, the official twitter handle of the Indian Premier League posted a video saying that Lucknow fans are geared up to welcome MS Dhoni to their hometown and witness him in action today. To their disappointment, cricket enthusiasts saw covers on the pitch on reaching the stadium. Several of them posted pictures of the covered pitch on social media platforms hoped for the rain to stop.
However, their wish to see ‘Mahi bhai’ knocking the ball out of the park remained unfulfilled as rain played spoilsport and the game had to be called off. The match was first delayed by half-an-hour due to the rain spell at 2 pm and later, it was called off when the precipitation intensified around 6 pm.
Before the covers came out, LSG won the toss and decided to bat first. The decision didn’t augur very well for the Lucknow side as CSK bowlers picked up wickets at regular intervals in the powerplay amidst growing support for Dhoni’s men. Led by stand-in captain Krunal Pandya, Lucknow could post 125 runs for 7 wickets in 19.2 overs on the scoreboard before the rain spell washed off the game.
{{/usCountry}}Before the covers came out, LSG won the toss and decided to bat first. The decision didn’t augur very well for the Lucknow side as CSK bowlers picked up wickets at regular intervals in the powerplay amidst growing support for Dhoni’s men. Led by stand-in captain Krunal Pandya, Lucknow could post 125 runs for 7 wickets in 19.2 overs on the scoreboard before the rain spell washed off the game.
{{/usCountry}}“We could just see Dhoni with big gloves standing behind the stumps and guiding his bowlers to bowl at a particular length so that the Lucknow team doesn’t get to set a big target,” said Amit Ghosh, a Dhoni fan who went to see the game with his wife.