IPL 2018: Stephen Fleming Opens Up Regarding the Success of MS Dhoni this Season
Published - 15 May 2018, 09:55 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:09 AM
‘Practice makes a man perfect,’ as they say. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) coach Stephen Fleming finally gave away Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s success mantra this season of Indian Premier League (IPL).
The Kiwi claimed to have seen Dhoni go really hard during the practice sessions, prior to the start of the tournament. His hard work paid instant dividends as the spectators witnessed a new Dhoni this season, MSD 2.0, one might say,
Right from the start of the two-month long tournament, the 36-year-old cricketer brought back time–to play some of the vintage knocks.
Dhoni constantly has been on the leaderboard of runs scored by individual batsmen in the tournament, apart from striking the ball in the vicinity of 200.
“Probably mentally just intent, he practised really hard before the tournament,” Fleming told India Today, post-CSK’s thumping win over table-toppers Sunrisers Hyderabad.
“He practised a lot of time before the tournament, got in before any of us had arrived. He hit a lot of balls, hit a huge volume of balls, he concentrated on his intent,” Fleming added.
He is incredibly confident about what he can do: Fleming
That said, it was the intent which went missing from Dhoni during his recent outings for India, post-2015 World Cup, where he consumed way too many balls to finally get going.
“He is so clear of thought that now he can access most areas that he used to when he was a bit younger when there was a period he was having to combat good bowling plans. Now he has done that with a good presence of mind, fitness and obviously a strong technique to back that up,” Fleming suggested.
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This comes in as music to the ears of the army of ardent Dhoni fans who wish to see him play in the World Cup of 2019.
The performances of Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant might also be responsible for Dhoni exploring his form.
“He is incredibly confident about what he can do and that’s always a great thing for us and dangerous for a death bowler,” Stephen Fleming concluded.
