MS Dhoni passes Dinesh Karthik to become wicket-keeper with most catches in IPL

MS Dhoni has surpassed Dinesh Karthik as the most successful IPL wicket-keeper. He has surpassed Karthik’s previous record of most catches as a wicket-keeper. Evidently, Karthik was one of the catches Dhoni took to accomplish this feat against the Kolkata Knight Riders in Abu Dhabi. The 40-year-old had only made two catches all game. He had earlier pouched a nick off Venkatesh Iyer, who attempted to play a Shardul Thakur delivery pitched outside off stump. The match between CSK and KKR saw a nail-biting encounter that stretched to the final delivery. It ended with the men in yellow edging out an important victory to go top of the table.

Dhoni now has 116 catches under his belt. He has kept wickets for Chennai since the league’s inception in 2008. He competed for an Indian team spot with the Tamil Nadu cricketer. The former India skipper was overshadowed by Karthik in his early years, but after a blinder of a knock against Pakistan in 2005, fans quickly forgot Karthik. Since then, MS Dhoni’s reputation as a wicket-keeper has grown. Besides, he was also a keen observer of the game and frequently assisted young spinners with their erroneous line and lengths.

Earlier in the day, Dinesh Karthik’s late cameo and Nitish Rana’s steady long handle helped Kolkata Knight Riders to a par-score of 171 for 6 against Chennai Super Kings in an Indian Premier League match on Sunday. Shardul Thakur (2/20 in four overs) and Ravindra Jadeja (1/21 in four overs) bowled well to keep KKR at bay until the 13th over, when they were 93 for four.

The last seven overs, however, yielded 78 runs, and KKR were able to put on a more-than-fighting score, largely due to Sam Curran (0/56 in 4 overs) leaking runs at the end. Even Josh Hazlewood (2/40 in 4 overs) got some flak for aiding KKR’s cause. Rahul Tripathi (45 off 33) laid the foundation, hitting four boundaries and one six, but it was the CSK bowlers who kept making inroads and not allowing the KKR batsmen to either free their arms or settle down.

A THRILLING RUN CHASE AGAINST KKR

The Super Kings had gotten off to a good start in the run chase, with both of their openers scoring in the 40s. Rituraj Gaikwad maintained his good batting form, scoring 40 off 28 deliveries, while Faf du Plessis scored 43 off 30. Moeen Ali also contributed with a valuable 32-run knock.

The CSK middle-order, on the other hand, was underwhelming on the day. No one could manage a good score until Ravindra Jadeja arrived in the middle. He smashed two sixes and two boundaries against Prasidh Krishna in the 19th over. The Super Kings only needed four runs in the final over. However, there would be another twist in the story. As Sam Curran was on strike, KKR skipper Eoin Morgan passed the ball to Sunil Narine. Curran was out on the first ball and the next ball was a dot. However, Thakur played the ball on the leg side for the third one, and it almost reached the boundary line. As the CSK batters ran three, a brilliant fielding effort on the rope denied the boundary.

With Jadeja on strike and CSK needing one run from three, the game appeared to be over. However, Narine bowled a dot for his fourth ball and then dismissed Jadeja with the next. Deepak Chahar walked out to the middle with only one run to get from the last ball, and thankfully for him, Narine’s ball pitched much shorter than he had hoped, and he easily scored the winning run.