IPL 2022: MS Dhoni's mind prevails in final over 3D chess against familiar foes

Most people will tell you that cricket is played on a 22-yard pitch with a bat and ball. But discerning readers of the game understand that the game’s mental aspects are akin to the game of chess. If you strip down cricket to its essential elements, you can watch it as a duel, just like chess, that happens between a batter and a bowler. Ball after ball, a batter and a bowler are both plotting their next move. What delivery should I choose from my armoury of weapons for this next ball? Where should I hit the next ball? Should I go for a single or a boundary? Along with plotting, they anticipate what their opponents are going to do. He knows my strength is a yorker; should I bluff him and bowl something else? He knows I will be anticipating a yorker. Would he try to bluff me? But he also knows I am expecting a bluff? Would he double bluff? When it comes to the pure physical skills of batting and bowling, the difference at the elite level is minimal. What separates the good from the GOATs is their mental ability. The best batters don’t just anticipate what the bowler will bowl next with a fair degree of accuracy. At times they play with the bowlers’ minds so that they make them bowl the next ball exactly where they want it. We have come to associate this skill of nerveless anticipation and execution with Dhoni for over a decade now. The game against Mumbai Indians further shows how the mind never gets old even as his body is closing in on 41 years on the planet. Dhoni’s movements on the crease are visibly sluggish now. His levers creak as they move. Like a vintage car, he struggles to find any acceleration early on as he starts, if he starts at all. But that computer in his head continues to work as if the makers have continuously upgraded the hardware and applied all software patches timely and diligently. That computer is what still separates him from the crowd in a crunch situation. Imagine being a bowler at the other end against Dhoni in the final over. You know Dhoni has set up the entire game for this duel. You have studied Dhoni’s videos and watched all his finishes. You know all his shots. You should be able to predict where he likes to hit and what he wants to do. But at the moment, you are hypnotised by the man’s aura. You stand at the top of your mark, watch him adjust his gloves, and mark his guard. You wonder if your name will get added to the long list of victims. You wonder if Dhoni has left it too late, but is it ever too late for Dhoni? Australia and Clint McKay thought the same at Adelaide a decade ago. Dhoni wasn’t able to find any timing on that day. Plus, surely he can’t clear those humungous Adelaide boundaries. Dhoni is looking for just one six early in the over to put the pressure back on the bowler. If he doesn’t get it, you have a chance. You know you are a dead duck if he can deposit you over the boundary with three or more balls remaining. If you look at the third ball six against Unadkat, it seems eerily similar to the third ball six against McKay at Adelaide. Not that big, but it was the same situation and the same shot. As the commentators remarked at Adelaide, Dhoni’s entire weight was on the backfoot when he played the shot. But once he made that connection, there was only one place the ball could go. With the equation in his favour (anything less than a boundary, every ball is in Dhoni’s favour), Dhoni reverts to cruise control . The creaky vintage car is revved up and is switching between gears with ease. The pitch has been sluggish all day, but Model Dhoni, circa 2004, is renowned for being reliable on all surfaces. At Port of Spain in 2013, India were struggling to score at four an over for 49 overs when all of a sudden Dhoni delivered with 15 off 4. Here, on a similar surface, he somehow turned a spell on Unadkat, who forgot to use the two-paced nature of the pitch by bowling cutters and went for full yorkers in the last two balls. Dhoni anticipated the first and swatted a two; he predicted the second even better, now that he was well calibrated and turned his wrist at the last moment to find the deep square leg boundary. Dhoni delivered yet again. With less muscle power and more brainpower this time. You won’t back Dhoni to deliver against all opponents on all surfaces anymore. But when he finds the right matchup, he still has what it takes to turn back the clock, as DC and Tom Curran also discovered last season in a critical finish. At the DY Patil on Thursday, Dhoni’s experience and wit weren’t just visible in how he scored runs. At the end of the game, his partner in crime, Dwayne Pretorious, commented on how Dhoni shepherded him through the night. Telling him when to wait and the exact moment he needs to unleash the lap shot against Bumrah. Earlier in the evening, he was instrumental in dismissing Pollard with his patented field setting against the big lad from West Indies. You would think a player of Pollard’s calibre and experience wouldn’t fall in the same trap 12 years after Dhoni had first laid it. But whether it is Dhoni’s Midas touch, aura, force field, or charm, he continues to lay the bait out from behind the stumps, and the batters continue to fall into his trap. CSK still have a lot of running to do this season for any chance to qualify for playoffs. Their fielding has been abysmal, batting pedestal, and bowling patchy. Yet once their talisman shows the way, CSK now has the inspiration they need. The road ahead is challenging, but this is still not over for Team Yellow. 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