MS Dhoni achieved a massive captaincy milestone when he stepped on to the field for the IPL 2023 encounter between the Chennai Super Kings and the Rajasthan Royals at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Wednesday. The legendary cricketer became the first-ever man to lead a particular franchise for 200 matches when he walked out for the toss.
Before the start of the match, the wicketkeeper-batter was presented with a special memento in recognition of this tremendous achievement and it was none other than the former Chairman of the ICC N Srinivasan who handed over the memento to the Chennai skipper. Notably, Srinivasan also happens to be the managing director of India Cements and owner of the CSK franchise.
The video of the felicitation was shared by the IPL on their official social media handle.
"Mr N Srinivasan, former Chairman of the ICC, former President of BCCI and TNCA, Mrs. Chitra Srinivasan and Mrs Rupa Gurunath present @msdhoni with a special memento commemorating the very special 200th 👏," the video was captioned.
Here is the clip:
Talking about the CSK vs RR match, both the teams have won two of their three matches so far but owing to a better net run rate it is Rajasthan who are ranked at the second place on the league table placed above Chennai who find themselves at the sixth place.
Having said that, with this being a home match for CSK and Dhoni's 200th one as skipper, the Men in Yellow would be determined to bag the two points from this match. However, if there is any one team which can neutralise home advantage for Chennai it is Rajasthan Royals since they have two world-class spinning options in Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal.
Dhoni won the toss in his landmark game and has invited Rajasthan to have a bat first. As per his reading of the pitch, the strip is expected to be slightly on the slower side with a possibility of dew as the game progresses.