Former Indian cricket team batter Sanjay Manjrekar was in awe of MS Dhoni after the Chennai Super Kings pulled off a brilliant stumping to dismiss Gujarat Titans star Shubman Gill during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 final at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Tuesday. Gill missed a straight delivery from Ravindra Jadeja and Dhoni finished the dismissal with a reaction time of around 0.1 seconds. Manjrekar was all praise as he hailed it as Dhoni's best ever stumping.
“I have seen these brilliant stumpings of Dhoni over the years. It is mostly when the ball is few inches away from the stumps and he collects it very close. He does not do what you are taught in school that collect the ball first. He keeps his gloves close and just takes the bails off. We all know that Dhoni does stumpings the fastest but what we saw today with Shubman Gill was the most special of all Dhoni stumpings,” Manjrekar explained on ESPNCricinfo after the match.
“Jadeja is a quick bowler. So there is the collection part but today, they was nothing. There was a slight movement and the bails were off. Maybe he was aware of the importance of the wicket. There was a great moment there when Jadeja was not sure if he had got the stumping. He walked towards Dhoni and asked if the batsman was out and Dhoni just confidently nodded,” he added.
CSK won their record-equalling fifth IPL title by defeating GT by five wickets in the summit clash.