MS Dhoni is considered to be one of the master tacticians of cricket and his brilliance was in full display as he carefully orchestrated the dismissal of Rohit Sharma during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 encounter between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians on Saturday. Rohit demoted himself to No 3 in a bid to find form and as soon as the MI skipper came out to bat, Dhoni had a specific plan for him. He came up to the stumps in order to stop Rohit from stepping out of the crease and kept the third-man fielder inside the circle to put extra pressure. It worked instantly as Rohit ended up top-edging the third ball to Ravindra Jadeja off the bowling of Deepak Chahar.
It was the 16th time that Rohit was out for 0 in the IPL. He now has the most ducks in IPL history.
Before this match, Rohit was tied with three other players on 15 IPL ducks. Those players are Dinesh Karthik, Mandeep Singh and West Indies all-rounder Sunil Narine. Indian batter Ambati Rayudu is in fifth position with 14 ducks in his IPL history.
Before the game against CSK, in his 236 matches in IPL, Rohit has scored 6,063 runs at an average of 29.87 with one century and 41 fifties. His best score is 109*.
Rohit Sharma joined the Mumbai side in 2011 and has since been playing for MI. He started captaining the side in 2013 and in his first stint as skipper, he won his maiden IPL title. He is the most successful skipper in IPL history, having won five IPL titles with MI as a captain.