MS Dhoni and his bond with Chennai Super Kings have been known for years. But few know about the bonds he have inside the camp with the support staff and all. Chennai Super Kings throwdown specialist Kondappa Raj Palani has narrated his first meeting with the legendary MS Dhoni. Kondappa first met Dhoni just after he announced retirement from international cricket in the CSK camp. The former Indian skipper announced his retirement on 15th August 2020. One year after he played his last match in the 2019 World Cup.
It was just few days before the start of the The IPL 2020 season when dhoni announced retirement and the story took around the time when CSK was having their preparatory camp before IPL. Dhoni needed some practice as he was away from cricket for more than an year.
“The first time, the camp started when Dhoni retired. I saw him for the first time then. Heasked if you were the throwers. He asked me to throw balls at him. The team was pleased after that. The net bowlers were speaking about hisretirement. After two or three weeks, he came to play sidearm. Everybody was arriving,” Palani said on the Chennai Super Kings website.
“Fleming, Hussey and everyone said Dhoni was coming and asked me to bowl carefully. Thefirst two balls were wides. The next ball was a full toss. Dhoni came to me and said ‘Stop looking at me and bowl’. He asked me to playnaturally. I then started bowling wherever he wanted and then he was very happy. He started addressing me everyday since with my name.”
Palani wasn’t the only CSK throwdown specialist to get a chance to bowl to Dhoni. His partner, Murugan had his share of luck of bowling to the CSK legend. “He mostly asks me to bowl front foot. He used to say picking wickets is next. First, get the feel of it. We started giving him that,” Murugan mentioned.
Though CSK had to face the worst season that year when they for the first time failed to qualify for the playoffs. But a great comeback was shown by the Dhoni’s army just the next year when they won the trophy for the fourth time. CSK this year also failed to qualify for the playoffs finishing 9th in the points table. Many things went wrong inside the camp as Jadeja relinquished his captaincy in the middle of the season and again Dhoni had to take it. But Fans hope for the best next year as the CSK team are known for their comebacks.
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