2010 – The first of many titles
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The IPL returned to India: by this time, Dhoni had managed to sew up a core of players together, perfectly complemented by a string of newcomers in the form of Ravichandran Ashwin and Suresh Raina. Dhoni picked up an injury in the initial leg of the tournament, and was forced to sit out for a week, handing the reins to Suresh Raina. Players like Doug Bollinger, Albie Morkel and Matthew Hayden played crucial roles to take the team to the third spot in the points table.
In the semi-finals, CSK managed to squeeze out a win against the Deccan Chargers despite managing only 143 on the board. In the finals, against the Mumbai Indians, the team finished with a 22-run win.
Dhoni had another decent outing with the bat, scoring 287 runs at an average of over 30 and strike-rate of 137.
2011 – Icing on the World Cup cake
MS Dhoni firmly entreched his name in the annals of Indian history by leading India to its first World Cup win in 28 years. As if that was not enough, he returned within a months time to clinch back to back IPL titles for CSK. With the 2011 win, CSK completed a hat-trick of titles (including the Champions League), and became the first team to win all their games at home in one single season.
The fresh auctions mandated that only four players could be retained by one franchise, which meant that MS Dhoni’s core set of players had to be broken. The team retained Dhoni, Raina, Vijay and Albie Morkel, and got back the likes of Ashwin and Michael Hussey.
It was one of MS Dhoni’s best years with the bat, striking the ball at a jaw-dropping strike-rate of 159.
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