IPL 2019, CSK vs KXIP: Turning point - MS Dhoni’s late onslaught

While du Plessis and Harbhajan were applauded for their respective good performances, Dhoni played a quick-fire innings to take CSK to a formidable score.

Chennai Super Kings bounced back from a defeat in their last game by beating Kings XI Punjab in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match at the Chepauk Stadium in Chennai on Saturday.

Chennai Super Kings captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni plays a shot during an IPL match. (AFP)

While Faf Du Plessis and Harbhajan Singh were applauded for their respective good performances with bat and ball, Dhoni played a quick-fire innings to take CSK to a formidable score and also shifted the momentum in his team’s corner.

Dhoni came to bat in the 14th over of the innings when Ravichandran Ashwin had dismissed Du Plessis and Suresh Raina off successive deliveries. The CSK skipper started cautiously and scored just 6 runs off his first 11 deliveries.

Dhoni broke into life on the penultimate delivery of the 18th over when he hit a mini helicopter shot for a boundary off Andrew Tye. Dhoni then took apart Sam Curran in the next over, where CSK score 19 runs. Dhoni slammed a six and couple of boundaries in the over.

In the last over, Dhoni hit a boundary off Mohammed Shami as CSK scored 14 from it. Dhoni finished with unbeaten 37 runs off 23 deliveries and his strike-rate at the end of the innings read 160.8.