‘Why are you giving me the award?’: MS Dhoni's candid admission on winning IPL Player of the Match after six years

MS Dhoni put in a Player of the Match performance to help Chennai Super Kings (CSK) snap their winless streak in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. The five-time champions registered their second win of the season by defeating Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) by five wickets on Monday. The right-handed Dhoni played an unbeaten 26-run knock off 11 balls to help CSK chase the total down with three balls to spare. Here's what MS Dhoni had to say about his match-winning knock vs LSG

This was Dhoni's first Player of the Match award in the IPL after five years. The former India captain had last won the accolade way back in 2019. During the post-match presentation, Dhoni made a candid admission, saying several other options could have gotten a Player of the Match accolade compared to him.

Dhoni put on an unbeaten stand of 57 runs for the sixth to guide CSK over the line in the final over of the game. The left-handed Dube remained unbeaten on 43 runs off 37 balls.

"Even today, I was like, why are they giving me the award? I feel Noor Ahmad bowled well. The new ball bowling and in between when Noor and Jaddu, you know, they bowled like four or five overs together. Those were the two spans, I think, where we did very well," said Dhoni at the post-match presentation.

For the contest against Lucknow Super Giants, CSK made two changes to their playing XI. The side brought in Jamie Overton and Shaik Rasheed instead of Devon Conway and Ravichandran Ashwin.

Explaining the decision to leave out Ashwin, Dhoni said, "We were actually putting too much pressure on Ash. He has to bowl two overs on wickets that were not doing a lot and the batsmen were just expressing themselves. We made a few changes where we could have more bowlers who were able to bowl in the first six," said Dhoni.

"And if needed, if the fast bowlers, somebody goes for a run, you have Noor who can drop in with one over. So, I feel this looks like a better attack. You know, there's more manoeuvrability for the captain," he added.

'Good to win a game'

Dhoni also expressed elation on finally snapping the winless streak in the ongoing 18th edition of the T20 tournament. In the fixture against LSG, Dhoni also became the first player to surpass 200 dismissals as a wicketkeeper in the IPL.

"It's good to win a game because when you play a tournament like this, you want to win games. Unfortunately, the matches didn't go our way. Whatever the reason may be, there can be lots of reasons. So, it's good to have a win on our side. It gives a lot of confidence to the whole team. And it helps us improve in areas where we want to improve. We all knew that when it doesn't come your way in cricket, God makes it very tough," said Dhoni.

"It was a tough game, but glad to be on the winning side, and hopefully it will give us some momentum," he added.

Despite this win against Lucknow Super Giants, CSK remain at the bottom of the points table. The franchise will next square off against Mumbai Indians at the Wankede Stadium, Mumbai on April 20, 2025.

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