First Award at Just 25
Dhoni broke Praveen Tambe’s record. Tambe won this title at 43 years and 60 days, while Dhoni achieved this milestone at 43 years and 281 days. This is his 18th Player of the Match award in the IPL. He won his first Player of the Match award in 2008 at the age of just 25. His last award before this one was in 2019.
‘Why are they giving me this award?’
After the match, Dhoni said, “I was wondering why they are giving me this award?” Regarding the match, he commented, “It’s good to win matches. When you play in this kind of tournament, you want to win matches. Unfortunately, the first game didn’t go our way for whatever reason. Our win is good. It gives the whole team confidence and helps us improve in areas.”
‘It was a difficult match’
He further added, “It was a difficult match. If you look at the power play, whether it’s the combination or the conditions, we were struggling with the ball. Then, as a batting unit, we couldn’t get the start we wanted. We kept losing wickets at the wrong time. One reason is that the Chennai wicket is a bit slow. When we’ve played away from home, the batting unit has performed a bit better. Maybe we need to play on a bit better wickets, so that the batsmen get the confidence to play their shots. You don’t want to play timid cricket.”
‘As a bowling unit, we performed well’
Dhoni concluded, “We made changes, and it looks like a better attack. As a bowling unit, we’ve performed well. As a batting unit, we can do better. Roles and responsibilities are what we talk about. If you get a good start and you’re a player who can play till the end, why not.”