MS Dhoni gets ‘Player of The Match’ after over 2100 days, here’s what he said after winning prestigious award

Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni was surprised after being named Player of the Match following Monday’s victory over the Lucknow Super Giants. Dhoni’s stunning performance included 26 runs off just 11 balls, featuring four boundaries and a six, culminating in a thrilling run chase. His outstanding display earned him the distinction of becoming the oldest player to receive the Man of the Match award in IPL history.

However, this was Dhoni’s first ‘Player of The Match’ award in IPL after six years. Last time when captain cool had won this title was in 2019 during a match against RR on March 31 when he scored 75.

Despite winning it after six years, Dhoni questioned why he was receiving the Player of the Match award when the left-arm wrist spinner Noor Ahmad bowled “well” during their five-wicket triumph against Lucknow Super Giants in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL).

“Even today, I was like, why are they giving me the award? I feel Noor Ahmad bowled well. The new ball bowling and in between when Noor and Jaddu, you know, they bowled like four or five overs together. Those were the two spans, I think, where we did very well,” said Dhoni at the post-match presentation.

Meanwhile, for this high-octane clash against Lucknow Super Giants, CSK made two changes to their playing XI. The side brought in Jamie Overton and Shaik Rasheed instead of Devon Conway and Ravichandran Ashwin.

Explaining the decision to leave out Ashwin, Dhoni said, “We were actually putting too much pressure on Ash. He has to bowl two overs on wickets that were not doing a lot and the batsmen were just expressing themselves. We made a few changes where we could have more bowlers who were able to bowl in the first six.”

This was CSK’s second win in the TATA IPL 2025. Now, MS Dhoni-led CSK will square off against Hardik Pandya-led Mumbai Indians on April 20.