On Monday, at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, after a closely contested match between the Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli were seen sharing a light-hearted moment. The two cricketing legends shared a laugh, indicating that there was no bad blood between them despite being on opposing sides.
The Chennai Super Kings won the match by eight runs in a high-scoring encounter. After losing the toss, the Yellow Brigade displayed an impressive batting performance, scoring 227 runs for the hosts to chase. Devon Conway was the top scorer with 83 runs off 45 deliveries, and Shivam Dube contributed 52 runs off 27 balls.
Despite fancying their chances to chase the record-breaking score, the Royal Challengers Bangalore lost their captain, Virat Kohli early in the first over. Mahipal Lomror also perished for a duck in the second over. However, Glenn Maxwell and Faf du Plessis steadied the innings by hitting big shots.
Maheesh Theekshana made up for his earlier dropped catches by dismissing the dangerous Maxwell for 76, while Moeen Ali took the wicket of du Plessis (62). The remaining batters tried their best, but struggled to maintain the required run-rate. In the end, Mathisha Pathirana bowled well enough to defend 21 runs off the final over against Suyash Prabhudessai and Wanindu Hasaranga.
Virat Kohli: “I’ve a special bonding with MS Dhoni”
Kohli, who took over as India’s Test captain from Dhoni in 2014, disclosed in September 2022 that he holds a great deal of respect for the wicket-keeper batsman. He further revealed that Dhoni was the only person who contacted him after he resigned as India’s red-ball captain.
“Dhoni was the only one who texted me when I left Test captaincy. Many people have my number but nobody except Dhoni thought about texting me. They give a lot of suggestions on TV but nobody reached out to me individually. I have a special bonding with MS Dhoni. There are some connections which are genuine and it has some security. We aren’t insecure & have respect for each other. If I want to help someone, I’ll reach out to him individually. I won’t give him suggestions in front of the public as that doesn’t have any value for me.”
Kohli said
Coming to the IPL, RCB faced their third defeat of the season, while CSK climbed to the third position in the points table.