On MS Dhoni's 3 Sixes Against Hardik Pandya, Sunil Gavaskar's Blunt "Benefit Match" Dig

The Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Super Kings match in  the IPL 2024 was memorable for a number of reasons. There were some superlative displays by youngsters while MI star batter Rohit Sharma got a century. While MI lost the match, often called the IPL's El Clasico, what got the Wankhede Stadium and India going was the three sixes that MS Dhoni hit in the last over of CSK's innings. Dhoni scored 20 off four balls, which coincidentally was also the winning margin of CSK.

After the match, former Indian cricket team captain Sunil Gavaskar took a jibe at the Mumbai Indians bowlers. 

"Well so I'm pretty certain the Mumbai Indians would have also seen what he was practicing, and so they decided this might be his last game here in Mumbai, so let's also go in the same way, so he can delight the Mumbai crowd. Listen, I'm not going to get over this, I'm not… like all Indians, I'm a fan of him, and I wanted to see him hit a six, but not three back-to-back sixes," Gavaskar said on Star Sports.

"This is all length delivery, it's almost like I said, like a benefit match, you know, there's a beneficiary, and you want to make sure that the beneficiary succeeds in his benefit match, doesn't get out first ball, and that's the kind of bowling that was it."

Absolute cinema! 3 sixes in a row.
Chapri Hardik Pandya was treated as Dilhara Fernando by MS Dhoni tonight.
pic.twitter.com/6cXjWnYnWc

— Cric Bash (@bash_699) April 14, 2024

The match, often a matter of prestige for MI fans, also saw Hardik Pandya getting booed. He has been at the receiving end of some vitriolic attack by the franchise's fans ever since he replaced Rohit Sharma as the captain. After MI's loss against CSK, Gavaskar too blasted Pandya's captaincy and also his bowling. 

"Probably the worst kind of bowling that I've seen for a long, long time. It almost looks like I've had this embrace with my hero. I've got a bowling kind of deliveries that he's gonna hit for sixes. One 6 is fine. The next one again a length ball when you know that this batter is looking for a length ball to hit. The third ball again, a full toss on the leg side and he's looking for it and hits it for a 6. Absolutely ordinary bowling, ordinary captaincy," Gavaskar said during his analysis in the mid-innings break.

Topics mentioned in this article

Chennai Super Kings Mumbai Indians IPL 2024 MS Dhoni Hardik Pandya Sunil Gavaskar Cricket