5 Unknown facts about MS Dhoni’s IPL career

MS Dhoni has a special place when it comes to the Indian Premier League (IPL) as he stands in top 10 in the top run-getters list and is known for pulling off matches from toughest of situations. He is also the most successful captain in terms of matches won in the league history and is one of the two captains to win as many as three titles.

Dhoni was the most expensive player in 2008 where he was bought by the Chennai Super Kings (CSK). In 2010, he became the first Indian captain to win an IPL title. He led CSK to a title win in the very next season and stands as the only captain to be successful in defending an IPL trophy till date.

Here we look at few unheard facts from MS Dhoni’s illustrious 12-year career in the IPL:

5. Batting as high as No.3 in seven innings

MS Dhoni is known for his contributions with the bat down the order in the IPL. He usually bats at No.5 or a lower position and regularly promotes himself to No.4 depending on the situation. He batted as high as at No.3 position in the league during seven innings but none of them since the start of the 2011 edition.

Those seven innings equate to 4% of Dhoni’s IPL career as he batted in a total of 170 innings. MS Dhoni scored 188 runs at No.3 in the 7 innings at an average of 37.6 and an SR of 125.33 with a fifty. Dhoni’s overall IPL career numbers are better in comparison to stats at No.3 position as his average reads 42.2 and has got a strike rate of 137.85.

Dhoni batted three times at No.3 in 2008 where he recorded scores of 43*, 33 and 4. He scored an unbeaten 37-ball 58 in a league game of 2009 edition and scored 28 off 30 in the semis against RCB. He bagged a duck during the 2010 home game against Delhi franchise and scored a 13-ball 22 in the 2011 final against RCB; the last time he ever batted at No.3 in the IPL.

4. Not the wicketkeeper during the knockouts of 2008 and 2009 IPL editions

MS Dhoni was the wicketkeeper in every match he played in International Cricket. He did not keep wickets on a couple of instances where he got injured but never went into any International game as captain or a specialist batsman. However, the same has not been in his case of IPL as he played as a specialist batsman and captain in the first two IPL editions while representing CSK.

He did not play as wicketkeeper in a total of 8 matches in those two seasons which includes the inaugural 2008 edition final and also the semi-finals of 2008 and 2009. Dhoni played the first 11 league games in 2008 as a keeper but handed over the duties to Parthiv Patel after suffering a finger injury. The Gujarat keeper kept wickets for CSK in the 3 league phase matches and two knockout games they turned up to play later on against KXIP and RR.

Parthiv played as the CSK wicketkeeper in the opening game of the 2009 edition against Mumbai Indians and then in their last league game. The 2009 semis against Royal Challengers Bangalore was the last time where Dhoni played an IPL game purely as a batsman and captain. It seemed as if keeping brought best out of him as he scored only 148 runs in 7 innings he batted across the 8 IPL matches as non-keeper at an average of 24.67.

3. No stumpings in the first edition of the IPL

MS Dhoni holds a lot of records in terms of stumpings as he affected as many as 195 stumpings in International cricket; more than 50 ahead of the next best. He stands as the only keeper with 100+ ODI stumpings and his 34 stumpings in T20Is are the most in Men’s format. Even in Test cricket, he affected 38 stumpings which are bettered by only two keepers.However, he had to wait for a while for his maiden stumping in the Indian Premier League.

Dhoni couldn’t register a stumping on his name through the inaugural edition. He affected his first stumping in their 2nd match of the second season against RCB. During the game at the St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth, the CSK skipper caught Robin Uthappa short of his crease in the bowling of Muttiah Muralitharan. It was Dhoni’s 18th match of his IPL career and 12th match as a wicketkeeper in the league.

It was also the first stumping affected by the Chennai Super Kings in the history of the IPL. The frequency of stumpings increased from 2010 as top-class spin bowlers began to represent the franchise. Moreover, the Chepauk track was not as tricky to bat in the earlier seasons as it has been in recent times. Some of the highest run-scoring matches of the IPL were witnessed in Chennai only. Interestingly, MS Dhoni missed a stumping in the bowling of Murali during CSK’s debut IPL match.

2. Never involved in a Tied match

MS Dhoni featured in 190 matches in the Indian Premier League; the 2nd most by any player behind Suresh Raina’s 193 appearances. But Dhoni is yet to be part of a Tied match in the league history. A total of 13 players have been part of 150 or more matches in the IPL but Dhoni is the only player from the list to have not been part of a Tied game. Interestingly, he was part of as many as seven tied Internationals; the joint-most by any Indian.

Out of Dhoni’s 190 appearances in the IPL, 160 of them have been for the Chennai Super Kings and 30 for the Rising Pune Supergiant when the CSK team was suspended from the league for 2016 and 2017 editions. RPS was never part of a Tied game in the IPL but CSK was part of a Tie once. It was during the IPL 2010 when CSK hosted the Kings XI Punjab team at the Chepauk Stadium.

CSK played that match under the captaincy of Suresh Raina which was 2nd of the three matches which MS Dhoni missed due to an injury in that season. Chasing a target of 137 to win, the Super Kings were 96/2 when skipper Raina got runout in the 13th over. Batting became tough for the home team afterwards as they finished on 136/7 to push the game into Super Over. CSK scored 9 runs in 5 balls before losing both their wickets while Kings XI Punjab chased it down in only four balls.

1. Most fifties at 200+ strike rate among Indians in IPL

MS Dhoni is known for his intent less batting not just in ODIs but also in T20Is. His strike rate in T20Is read only 126.13 despite batting majority of his career in the death overs. Dhoni couldn’t win even one player of the match award despite playing 98 matches in the format. However, his batting has been in a different zone when it comes to the IPL as his strike rate is close to 140 in the league and has a batting average of over 40.

Dhoni has struck 23 fifties in the IPL thus far and in 8 of those, he ended up with a strike rate of 200+. Among Indians, no player other than Dhoni has more than six 50+ scores where the strike rate was over 200. Yusuf Pathan has six such scores while the aggressive batsmen from Delhi; Virender Sehwag and Rishabh Pant have five each. Dhoni is also one of the four players in IPL history with 8 or more scores of 50+ runs at a strike rate over 200 in the IPL.

AB de Villiers has nine such knocks in the history of the league while Chris Gayle and David Warner also have eight each. RCB, KXIP and Delhi franchise has been on the receiving end of Dhoni’s two IPL fifties at 200+ SR. MSD had one such inning in each of the first 5 editions of the IPL. He recorded two such knocks during the 2018 edition which is considered to be his best IPL season with the bat. Dhoni scored an unbeaten 32-ball 64 in 2016; his only IPL fifty at 200+ strike rate for Rising Pune Supergiant.