IPL 2024: In a touching moment, Suresh Raina, a former player for Chennai Super Kings and a close friend of MS Dhoni, joined the team during the lap of honour.
CSK did a lap of honour at the MA Chidambaram Stadium after Sunday’s match against the Rajasthan Royals.
MS Dhoni and his teammates distributed signed balls to the crowd using tennis racquets. Dhoni passed a tennis racquet to Raina, requesting him to serve the signed balls into the crowd. It’s worth mentioning that Raina, also a commentator for IPL 2024, was present at the venue to fulfil this role.
Dhoni’s gesture during this moment has captured hearts, flashing a wave of warmth and admiration across the internet. In a post on X, JioCinema captioned the video as, “34 seconds of pure Yellove”
Netizens reacted by saying, “Thala and Chinna Thala.”
Another user said, “I want full recordings, please Jio Cinema,. Just upload it on our website.”
As of the time of writing, the post had garnered 10,000 likes, 2,000 reposts, 30 comments, and 118,300 views.
On Sunday’s match, CSK clinched a thrilling five-wicket victory over Rajasthan Royals, boosting their playoff prospects in IPL 2024. With this win, CSK now has 14 points from 13 matches and sits at the third spot in the points table with a net run rate of +0.528.
In the chase of a modest 142 against RR, CSK reached the target in 18.2 overs, with skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad leading the charge with an unbeaten 42.
In the first innings, Simarjeet Singh’s impressive bowling performance helped CSK restrict RR to 141 for five in 20 overs, with Singh claiming 3 for 26. Riyan Parag was the top scorer for RR with an unbeaten 47 off 35 balls.
Following the match, CSK players, including ex-captain MS Dhoni, conducted a victory lap around the stadium, expressing gratitude to the fans for their support. A banner displaying “Nothing Like our Superfans” accompanied them during this lap.
MS Dhoni has been in sensational form in this year’s IPL and has been instrumental in putting the finishing touches to CSK’s innings in many encounters. However, since the start of the season, there has been much talk of the veteran batsman calling it quits from cricket for good after this IPL. Notably, Thala, as he is popularly known by his fans, has already retired from international cricket and only plays IPL cricket every year.
Rumours of MS Dhoni’s retirement intensified when he handed over the captaincy of CSK to Ruturaj Gaikwad at the start of the season. Later, Gaikwad even revealed in an interaction that MS Dhoni had hinted at handing over the CSK captaincy to him a few years back.