MS Dhoni led Chennai to another Indian Premier League title in 2021 edition. Chennai Super Kings beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 27 runs in the final held in Dubai. Faf Du Plessis was awarded man of the match for match winning innings of 86 runs, Rituraj Gaikwad also scored 32 runs, and Robin Uthappa played a good cameo of 32 runs of 15 runs. Moeen Ali also played useful knock of 32 runs of 20 balls. Chennai Super Kings managed to get 192 runs. Kolkata Knight Riders got good start, both their openers Venkatesh Iyer and Shubman Gill both scored half centuries. No other batsman failed to get a big score and Knight Riders kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Kolkata Knight Riders would be really proud of their performances which they have put in the second leg of IPL 2021; they have got talented players like Venkatesh Iyer, Shivam Mavi, Shubman Gill, and Rahul Tripathi. KKR would be hoping to retain few players for next editions, although retention player’s numbers have not been confirmed yet by IPL Governing council. Sunil Narine was another key player for Kolkata Knight Riders who performed in the crucial matches for KKR; he took 4 wickets in eliminator match against Royal Challenger Bangalore.
This was Chennai Super Kings 4th IPL title, they last won IPL In 2018 in India. Chennai Super Kings strength has been their core group, players like Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni have been playing for Chennai since the first edition of IPL that was started in 2008, and Dwayne Bravo has also been associated with Chennai Super Kings since many years. Mike Hussey batting coach of Chennai Super Kings has been major force behind Chennai batting, although most of Chennai players have retired or not playing much cricket. Still they played like a champion side and won the IPL.
It would be interesting to see what players Chennai would retain for the next edition of IPL, and which foreign players they will go after in the next edition. MS Dhoni would play or not the next edition of IPL as a player/captain remains to be seen. Surely fans in India would love to see MS Dhoni playing for the final time may be. We will get to know this in next few months’ time.
