Former Australia captain Aaron Finch supported Dhoni despite the lack of results, saying that his presence on the pitch at 43 is a sight to behold and that supporters should savour every second while he is playing. After losing to Punjab Kings (PBKS) by four wickets, the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) were eliminated from the IPL 2025 for the first time and missed the playoffs for the first time in a row.
Due to an elbow injury, CSK’s normal captain, Ruturaj Gaikwad, was sidelined early in the season. Due to need rather than choice, the renowned MS Dhoni was once again given captaincy responsibilities.
“I don’t think Dhoni anticipated having to deal with all of this again when he relinquished his captaincy a few years back. However, this season hasn’t been good for CSK. Even though MS, 43, only attends the IPL and doesn’t play much cricket, his moments on the pitch are magnificent. The sound he makes as he exits the dressing room and when he bats is incredible. On JioStar, he urged all cricket fans to attend a CSK match while MS Dhoni was still playing, if at all possible.
Despite Sam Curran’s outstanding 88 off 47 balls and a respectable total of 190, CSK faltered under duress as Punjab reached the mark with two balls remaining in the game. The game was lost by CSK due to the efforts of Shreyas Iyer (72) and Prabhsimran Singh (54), whose partnership of 72 runs won the match.
Meanwhile, Aaron Finch thinks that CSK’s reluctance to use pacer Nathan Ellis has been another issue this season.
Ellis has only played in one game, taking a wicket against the Mumbai Indians, despite being a threat in the closing overs.
“Yes, CSK needs to start over if they acknowledge that things haven’t gone as planned. It’s unbelievable that Nathan Ellis hasn’t performed more frequently. He can bowl in all three phases and is a world-class player. Pathirana has been wandering the park in the interim, not performing as well as he once did. CSK’s batsmanship has been lacking; if you add 20 more runs today, the game is completely different. Actually, until the heavy dew arrived late, I believed they had enough runs. However, the fielding has been subpar overall, and catches have decreased. You have to play a near-perfect game to win when that puts you on the defensive, Finch continued.
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