Mike Hussey Reveals An Interesting Insight Behind MS Dhoni's Dismissal Against Rashid Khan In The 2018 IPL Qualifier

Mike Hussey, former Australian batsman and the current batting coach of Chennai Super Kings, has revealed the behind-the-scene story behind MS Dhoni’s dismissal against Rashid Khan in the 2018 IPL Qualifier.

Hussey revealed that he had received a brilliant insight from his analyst regarding the grip and finger position of Rashid Khan every time he bowls a leg-break or a wrong’un.

The former CSK opener admitted that he contemplated quite a bit before finally sending out the information to all the batsmen.

The idea didn’t quite work for MS Dhoni though as he was dismissed by a Rashid Khan wrong’un for a painstaking 18-ball 9.

“The night before the qualifying final against Sunrisers Hyderabad, he (the analyst) sent me this split-screen of Rashid Khan,” Hussey said on the Lessons Learnt with the Greats podcast. “When he (Rashid) runs in to bowl, when he bowls his leg-spinner, he holds his finger wide as he’s running in, and when he bowls a wrong ‘un, (he bowls) with fingers like this,” Mike Hussey said on Lessons Learnt with the Greats podcast.

He added: “And I thought – ‘Woah, this is good, but I am not sure if I should be throwing this out to the batsmen the night before this massive qualifying final’. So, I am sitting on this information, and I am going back and forth – ‘Should I, should I not, would I want it’.

“And I said to myself – If we play this game tomorrow and lose, and Rashid Khan goes really well, and I have sat on this info and I haven’t sent it out, I am not gonna forgive myself. So, I decided to send it out to all the batsmen. But I did make sure I wrote: ‘You may want to use this, you may not. It is just here for your information. If you want anything, go for it, if not…” Mike Hussey added.

“Some of the guys loved it. Faf (du Plessis) loves this kind of stuff – he wants to know how many slower balls Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s gonna bowl in the first six overs, he wants to know all the different grips and everything. But there are other players who probably don’t want to use it. Anyway, I sent it out to all batsmen,” Hussey added.

“MS, you didn’t really hear a reply (from), which is generally normal. We come to the game, we’re playing it and we’re in big trouble and MS is in the middle, and while he’s in the middle, we’re still thinking there’s a chance to win” he reckoned.

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“As a coach, I thought my days are over forever”- Mike Hussey after MS Dhoni’s dismissal

Hussey revealed that he thought his coaching days were over when MS Dhoni came to him and said- ‘I’ll bat my own way, thanks’

“Rashid Khan comes on to bowl, one of the very first balls he (Dhoni) faces, goes for the big cover drive – wrong ‘un, bowled through the gate. And I’m thinking ‘Uh, gosh. Okay, no worries.’ And MS walks straight off the field, and I am sitting in the dugout and he walks straight up to me and says ‘I’ll bat my own way, thanks,’ and sits back down,” Mike Hussey reminisced.

Hussey, however, added that Dhoni came up to him for a chat after the game and hailed his idea, adding that he would need some time in the net to practice it.

“As a coach, I thought my days are over forever! But, to MS’s credit, after the game, he was absolutely fantastic. He came up and spoke to me and we had a good chat. He said that the information was correct, but for him, he needed time to go away and process it and practice it,” he added.

“What he did in the game was, he thought he saw it was going to be a leg-spinner, played a shot, didn’t bother watching the bowl, and obviously he was done through the gate with the wrong ‘un. He said ‘If I had got time in the nets, have a look at the hand as he was running in to bowl, then still watch the ball then I would have time to build it into the routine. And it would have been very beneficial.'” Hussey concluded.

CSK eventually got home thanks to a whirlwind assault by Faf du Plessis [67*]. The MS Dhoni-led unit beat SRH again in the finals to complete a fairytale return.

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