STATS HIGHLIGHTS
Follow UsMS Dhoni creates a special milestone
It was indeed a special day for the fans of the Chennai Super Kings as MS Dhoni announced at the toss that he would continue to play for the franchise in the next edition of the Indian Premier League.
The moment the skipper walked out for the toss, he created a special milestone as he became the only wicket-keeper to feature in 350 games in the T20s.
While the 40-year old tops the list, his fellow Indian teammate, Dinesh Karthik, is in the second position with 302 matches, followed by Kamran Akmal with 281 games.
Sanju Samson's dismal luck with the toss
The captain of the Rajasthan Royals has endured a tough time with the toss and lost 12 tosses in the 14 league matches played thus far, which is the joint-most by a player in a season along with MS Dhoni in 2012 for the Chennai Super Kings.
In the inaugural edition of the tournament, Dhoni lost 11 coin flips for the Super Kings, which is the second-most along with Virat Kohli in 2013.
Moeen Ali's blazing half-century
With an aim to salvage some pride in a horrific season, Chennai opted to bat first in their final fixture. However, they were jolted early in the innings as Ruturaj Gaikwad was dismissed on the last ball of the first over.
Despite the stutter, Moeen Ali, who walked in at number three, took the attack to the opposition bowlers in the powerplay. The southpaw was brutal with his strokeplay and made optimum use of the field restrictions to help the defending champions score 75 for the loss of one wicket in the powerplay.
En route to his brutal hitting, Moeen recorded his half-century off 19 deliveries, which is the second-fastest in this season behind Pat Cummins' 14-ball fifty against the Mumbai Indians.
The 34-year old breached yet another record, which is the second-fastest half-century in the history of the IPL for the Super Kings. Suresh Raina is on top of this list with a blazing fifty against the Punjab Kings off 16 deliveries in 2014.
Chennai's struggle post the powerplay
While Moeen displayed an array of strokes all around the ground to power Chennai to their best powerplay score in the season, wickets continued to tumble at the other end post the first six overs.
With the Super Kings light on their batting in this game, MS Dhoni and Moeen steadied the innings and refrained from taking any risk in the middle overs.
Chennai managed to score only 75 runs in their last 14 overs of the innings, which is the lowest by a team after scoring 70+runs in the field restrictions. Punjab Kings struggled to get going in their match against the Rajasthan Royals in 2010 and scored only 76 runs post the powerplay, which is the second-lowest.
Yuzvendra Chahal equals Imran Tahir's record
One of the most consistent spinners in this edition, Yuzvednra Chahal, equalled Imran Tahir's record of the most number of wickets in a single season by a spinner.
With the wicket of Dhoni in the penultimate over, the leg spinner took his tally to 26 wickets, which is the joint-most along with Tahir. The South African spinner achieved this in 2019 for the Super Kings. Harbhajan Singh is second on this list with 24 wickets in 2013 for the Mumbai Indians.
