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Rajasthan Royals (RR) pacer Sandeep Sharma posted a special message for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain MS Dhoni after a thrilling Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 encounter at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Wednesday, April 12. Sharma congratulated MSD for completing 200 matches as CSK captain in the IPL, adding that it was an honor to bowl to him.
Rajasthan Royals beat Chennai Super Kings by three runs in yet another match that went down to the last ball. Chasing 176, CSK needed 21 runs off the last over bowled by Sharma. The pacer began with a couple of wides and was then clobbered for two sixes by Dhoni. The bowler, however, held his nerves and did not concede another boundary as RR sneaked home to victory by a slender margin.
Following the win, Sharma took to social media to share his emotions. Praising Dhoni, he wrote on his Twitter handle:
“Congratulations @msdhoni paji for the 200 IPL matches. An honour to share the field and bowl to him. Forever grateful. #dreamcometrue.”
Batting first after losing the toss, the Rajasthan Royals put up 175/8 on the board. Jos Buttler top-scored with 52 off 36 balls, while Devdutt Padikkal (38 off 26), Ravichandran Ashwin (30 off 22), and Shimron Hetmyer (30* off 18) came up with handy contributions.
In reply, CSK were held to 172/6 as spinners Ashwin (2/25) and Yuzvendra Chahal (2/27) stifled the opposition batting. Chennai opener Devon Conway scored 50 off 38 balls, while Ajinkya Rahane contributed 31 off 19.
CSK lost their way after that, and despite fighting cameos from Ravindra Jadeja (25* off 15) and MS Dhoni (32* off 17) fell short in the chase.
“I wanted to deliver yorkers in the last over” - Sandeep Sharma on bowling to Dhoni, Jadeja
Reflecting on the tense 20th over, RR pacer Sharma said after the match that he wanted to bowl yorkers but missed his mark against MSD. A change of angle, however, did the trick. He stated:
“I wanted to deliver yorkers in the last over. I was bowling good yorkers in the nets. The leg-side was big, but I missed my mark and bowled a couple of low full-tosses and both went for sixes. Then I changed my angle and it worked. I bowled over the wicket to Jadeja and I wanted to keep it away from his reach.”
Intriguingly, Sharma went unsold at the IPL 2023 player auction and was signed by RR as a replacement for Prasidh Krishna at his base price of ₹50 lakh.
