MATCH STORIES
Follow UsImagine being Daryl Mitchell for a moment.
You have scored just 17 runs off 14 deliveries after coming in to bat in the 16th over against your team’s biggest rivals. That’s after scoring just 118 off 94 deliveries in the previous five innings for your team. Nothing is going right for you, and all you want at that moment is the ground to swallow you.
But that’s the thing. The ground won’t do that. In fact, the ground would do nothing except for just one thing - shout “Dhoni Dhoni” at the top of its voice. The embarrassment of your failure turns into jubilation at someone else’s anticipated arrival, as if your existence, or the lack of it, is just a step in the ultimate reveal, the ultimate Dharisanam.
The Thala Dharisanam!
When Mahendra Singh Dhoni from Ranchi, Jharkhand, wears a yellow jersey and appears in a stadium, no one else matters. Time stops. The context of the match gets lost. Everyone wants just him.
They stand in lines for hours just for him. They wait patiently as each CSK wicket falls and hope that the next one would be followed by the glimpse of long hair with streaks peaking from behind a helmet. Their throats shout just his name, and then finally at the end, he starts making his appearance.
The walk still hasn’t changed after almost two decades. The broad shoulders are still held taut with him swinging his bat as he walks towards the crease. And with that long hair coming out from behind his helmet, it almost feels like you are back in 2005 watching him bat in Pakistan.
However, the entire Wankhede wouldn’t have stood on their feet just to catch a single sighting of him walking out to bat back then. In the 19 years or so that have passed since then, he has earned three ICC, five IPL and two Champions League trophies.
But it’s this kind of welcome every time he makes an appearance which is the biggest earning of his career. Dhoni doesn’t have fans anymore. He has married mass love with depth of emotions and converted them into devotees.
And you know what’s even incredulous? Those devotees might not even be wearing yellow. They might be wearing the colours of Mumbai Indians, the biggest rivals of CSK, and still be shouting “Dhoni, Dhoni”.
Today, at the Wankhede, as he walked out to bat, he looked above and closed his eyes. The god of the millions watching, was seeking assistance from his own, as he walked out to face the remaining four deliveries in the innings. And then you could almost feel the jubilation in your bones as some Anirudh soundtrack plays in the background as the designated bhajan of the 'dharisanam'.
In the four games that he's batted this season, only once he's batted five balls or more (37* off 16 at Vizag vs Delhi Capitals). Otherwise, the 'Thala Dharisanam' has lasted for two, three and four deliveries respectively. But even that was enough to stop the nation, as in this IPL, he has scored 59 off the 25 balls he has faced at a strike rate of 236 - the highest for any batter this IPL who has played 25 balls or more.
So when he scored three sixes off just four balls today, forget the Wankhede, even the people at Marine Drive would have shut their ears because of the roof-shattering noise in the stadium.
Hardik Pandya improved his approval ratings massively by offering three consecutive deliveries right in the batter's slot. Dhoni hit the first one over long off, the second was smashed flat over mid-wicket, and the third over backward square leg - ensuring maximum area-wise distribution of his precious 'Prasadam' to his devotees.
Despite the opportunity offered by Pandya, you can’t help but admire Dhoni's bat swing, his brute power, and the fact that his immense six-hitting ability is still intact at 42.
We don’t know for how long the Thala will keep offering these brief but satisfying-to-the-core glimpses of his genius. We don’t know for long the 'Thala Dharisanam' will involve 'Prasadam' distribution like today. But what we do know is that the 'Thala Dharisanam' will continue to be the most universally celebrated, the most revered, and the most jubilant celebration of a cricketer in IPL history.
