Stephen Fleming, the head coach of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), has revealed that their captain MS Dhoni has been training in a specific way, knowing that he will only have a few overs to bat. Fleming stated that Dhoni has been focusing on his power hitting during training sessions. The results of this training were on full display on Wednesday, May 10, when Dhoni played a valuable cameo for CSK against the Delhi Capitals (DC).

In the match against DC, Dhoni smashed 20 runs in just nine balls, including one four and two sixes. His quickfire innings helped CSK reach a total of 167/8 after they won the toss and decided to bat first. CSK went on to win the match by 27 runs as DC was held to 140/8. Follow your favourite IPL team with attractive betting odds from Empire777.

During a post-match press conference, Fleming talked about the preparations behind Dhoni’s impressive big-hitting. He said, “He’s just training a certain way, he knows he’s not going bat for a long time. He concentrated more on the last three overs. [He’s] not as mobile between the wickets although today [Wednesday] he pushed really hard. So, he’s concentrated on really strong hitting practice. You can see the benefits of that. He is just very comfortable being able to play around the ground. We know how good a hitter her is and his access in certain areas is still very strong. That cameo again at the end was valuable in a hard-fought 20 overs.”

Apart from Dhoni’s cameo, pacers Matheesha Pathirana (3/37) and Deepak Chahar (2/28) shone with the ball for CSK.

Interestingly, in the match against DC, none of the CSK batters touched the 30-run mark. Besides Dhoni, five other batters chipped in with 20s, with Shivam Dube’s 12-ball 25 being the highest score.

However, Fleming had a different take on this and said, “It’s a reflection of the way games now are played, the players play with more high risks and the way you compose an innings is a little bit different, so I’m happy with the cameos if it keeps pushing you above par.

“What you’ve seen today, maybe a 160 wicket was turned into almost a possible 175-10 because we had positive intent through partnerships and guys playing aggressively. Dube is a good example of that, Rayudu and then MS in the end. We created enough to get ahead of the game, which we are happy with, even though we lost seven wickets.”

With this victory, CSK now has 15 points from 12 matches and is likely to qualify for the IPL 2023 playoffs if they win one of their remaining two games. Get all the latest updates from IPL 2023 only on Empire777 Sports.