Lucknow: The iconic MS Dhoni played a nice little cameo alongside Shivam Dube to guide Chennai Super Kings to a much-needed five-wicket win over Lucknow Super Giants and break their five-match losing streak in the IPL here on Monday.
Dhoni (26 not out off 11 balls) and Dube (43 not out off 37 balls) shared a match-winning stand of 57 runs for the sixth wicket to chase down a target of 167 with three balls to spare.
This was after LSG skipper Rishabh Pant returned to form with a half-century to guide his side to 166/7.
Pant (63 off 49 balls) struggled initially but grew in confidence as the innings progressed and together with Abdul Samad (20) shared 53 runs for the fifth wicket off 33 balls.
Shaik Rasheed (27 off 19) and Rachin Ravindra (37 off 22) got CSK’s chase off to a flier with a brilliant 29-ball 52-run opening stand.
While Ravindra showed his class on the off side, Rasheed was elegant on the leg side, finding the fence at will to bring up CSK’s fifty in the fifth over.
Debutant Rasheed’s entertaining knock came to an end when he skied a Avesh Khan short ball while trying to hoick it on the leg side.
Aiden Markram then had Ravindra trapped in front of the wicket while Rahul Tripathi failed to cash in on a reprieve as he edged a Ravi Bishnoi delivery back to the leg-spinner.
Bishnoi bowled superbly, and his efforts yielded result as he dismissed Ravindra Jadeja with a flighted delivery, and Markram took a fine catch at long on.
With CSK needing 56 off 30, in came Dhoni and he smashed Avesh through the off side for a four, and deliberately nicked the next ball past the keeper to the third man fence to bring down the equation to 44 of 24 balls.
It was vintage Dhoni on display as he swung his bat to hit a one-handed six off Shardul Thakur and then got a boundary off Avesh.
Both Dhoni and Dube used the pace of LSG bowlers to perfection to take CSK home and give their fans some relief.
Earlier, coming off five successive losses, CSK made a dream start after electing to bowl. Left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed (1/38) struck the first blow in the opening over when he dismissed Markram with Rahul Tripathi taking a brilliant diving catch after sprinting backwards.
Brief scores: LSG: 166/7 in 20 overs (Pant 63; Jadeja 2/24); CSK: 168/5 in 19.3 overs (Ravindra 37, Dube 43 not out, Dhoni 26 not out;
Bishnoi 2/18).