Watch: Crowd erupts with ‘Dhoni, Dhoni’ chants as the wicket-keeper pulls off a remarkable run-out

IPL 2021 defending champs Chennai Super Kings failed to break out of their losing rut as they crumbled to a 54-run defeat against the Punjab Kings on Sunday night. But despite the unfortunate result, CSK fans had something to cheer for, as their favorite ‘Thala’ MS Dhoni managed to produce a run-out for the ages. 

Punjab were a wicket down into the second over of their innings, and the in-form Bhanuka Rajapaksa was looking all set to commence his pyrotechnics. Having hit Chris Jordan for a six off the first ball, Bhanuka dabbed the second delivery onto the leg side and looked to run a quick single.

Dhoni shows lightning-fast reflexes to run-out Bhanuka Rajapaksa

His partner, Shikhar Dhawan, however, was in two minds about taking the run, before ultimately deciding to decline. But by this point, Bhanuka was already halfway down the pitch, almost 9 meters in front of the stumps,  and Jordan had already collected and lobbed the ball towards Dhoni, the ‘keeper. Except it wasn’t a perfect throw, and Dhoni had to charge in from nearly 12 meters behind the wicket to collect the ball and score a direct hit at the striker’s end.

The on-air commentators were ecstatic about the 40-year-old MSD’s stellar display of athleticism and wits; while Dhoni’s smug smile to his teammates just showed how confident he was about the run-out. Seconds later, the TV replays confirmed that Bhanuka was well short of his crease and MSD had indeed managed to inflict one of the most agile and best runouts in the game.

It wasn’t long until Twitterati began to laud Dhoni for his commendable glovework behind the stumps. Here are some of the best social media reactions to MSD’s run out. 

https://twitter.com/SatishBhadane1/status/1510622764767793156?s=20&t=RpPnbzEVJO5JKqxiaMhMXQ

https://twitter.com/sunthossh/status/1510622739740065792?s=20&t=G9JbL7dggdGp-3o2EXqZiA

https://twitter.com/Imbapuji7/status/1510623131127676932?s=20&t=9FE6VqQvAk1tgKkkTAw-Qg

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Sadly, as it would later turnout, Dhoni’s agile reflexes were among the few positives scattered all across the games for Chennai fans last night. While their bowlers did a fairly impressive job in restricting the opposition to 180/8, the CSK top order underwent a shambolic collapse that knocked them out of the chase way earlier than they would’ve liked. Shivam Dube (57 off 30) did sizzle for a while, but really, there wasn’t much to savor for Chennai as far as their batting was concerned. 

Brief scores: Punjab 180/8 (Livingstone 60, Dhawan 33, Jordan 2/23) beat Chennai 126 (Dube 57, Dhoni 23, Rahul Chahar 3/25) by 54 runs.