AHEMDABAD: The D-day approaches as Chennai Super Kings will be playing against Gujarat Titans in the finale of the Indian Premier League 2023. The match will take place at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday.
To make this occasion even more memorable, the ‘Captain Cool’ will be making his 250th IPL appearance, his 11th final as a player and his 10th as a skipper.
No other player has played 250 IPL matches and Dhoni is the first player to do so. Dhoni has made most appearances in IPL finals as a player and as a captain.
In IPL, Mahendra Singh Dhoni has played for Chennai Super Kings and Rising Pune Supergiant.
In 249 IPL matches so far, Dhoni has scored 5,082 runs at an average of 39.09 and a strike rate of 135.96 in 217 innings. His best score is 84* and he has scored 24 half-centuries. He is the seventh-highest run scorer in the league’s history.
For Chennai Super Kings, the right-handed batsmen have played 219 matches. In 190 innings he has 4508 runs with 22 half-centuries. His highest score was 84. The strike rate is 137.52 Dhoni’s batting average is 40.25.
For Rising Pune Supergiant, the wicket-keeper batsmen have played 30 matches from 2016-17. He has scored 574 runs in 27 innings. Dhoni had scored two half-centuries for RSP. His highest score was 64. The strike rate was 124.78. His batting average was 31.89.
As a captain for CSK and RPS, Mahendra Singh Dhoni has led his team to 225 matches, the most by any player in IPL history. He managed to win 132 matches while losing 91.
Dhoni has led CSK to four IPL titles, while he was part of the RPG team’s runner-up finish in 2017, where they lost to MI.
Dhoni has captained CSK in 211 matches. Out of this, Dhoni has won 127 matches, lost 82 and two matches ended in no result.
Dhoni has led RPG in 14 matches, out of which he won five, and has lost nine matches.
Hardik Pandya-led GT will be aiming to defend their title which they won in their debut season itself last year, while Dhoni-led CSK will be aiming to win their fifth title, especially for their skipper, who could be playing his final IPL match today. Ever since the start of the tournament, Dhoni’s retirement from IPL has been speculated by fans.
Chennai Super Kings squad: MS Dhoni, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Subhranshu Senapati, Moeen Ali, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Devon Conway, Shivam Dube, Dwaine Pretorius, Mitchell Santner, Tushar Deshpande, Ravindra Jadeja, Mukesh Chowdhary, Deepak Chahar, Ambati Rayudu, Matheesha Pathirana, Simarjeet Singh, Prashant Solanki, Maheesh Theekshana, Ben Stokes, Nishant Sindhu, Ajinkya Rahane, Sisanda Magala, Ajay Mandal, Shaik Rasheed, Bhagath Varma.
Gujarat Titans squad: Hardik Pandya, Rahul Tewatia, Vijay Shankar, Darshan Nalkande, Jayant Yadav, Odean Smith, Shivam Mavi, Shubman Gill, David Miller, Abhinav Manohar, Sai Sudharsan, Dasun Shanaka, Wriddhiman Saha, Matthew Wade, Rashid Khan, Mohammed Shami, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Pradeep Sangwan, R Sai Kishore, Noor Ahmad, Joshua Little, Mohit Sharma, KS Bharat, Urvil Patel. (ANI)