12BET India News: CSK captain MS Dhoni becomes the first player to play 200 IPL matches

Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni MS Dhoni became the most-capped player in the Indian Premier League (IPL) history and the first player to feature in 200 IPL matches after he stepped onto the field for Chennai Super Kings’ match against Rajasthan Royals at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. Earlier this month, Dhoni surpassed Suresh Raina’s record of the most capped player.

Prior to the clash this week, Dhoni had scored 4,568 runs at a strike-rate of 137.67. Dhoni is third on the leading six-hittters’ list with 215 sixes to his name, behind Chris Gayle (333 sixes) and AB de Villiers (231 sixes). “You spoke about it and that’s how I got to know. It feels good but at the same time it’s just a number. I feel fortunate to play for such a long time without many injuries,” Dhoni said after the toss.

The former India captain has led the Chennai franchise to three IPL titles and eight appearances in finals and had also played a few games for Rising Pune Supergiant. Despite losing the majority of the matches this season, currently at the seventh spot halfway to the virus-hit season, Dhoni still remain the only captain with over 100 IPL wins. He has also looked ordinary with only 136 runs in 8 innings, at 27.20.

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His teammate Raina, who has played 164 matches and now the second most-capped player in the league, took to Twitter to congratulate Dhoni on the special achievement and wrote: “The first-ever player to play his 200th match in IPL, Best of luck for today @msdhoni Bhai .. Wishing you loads of success. You always make us proud.”

Interestingly, both players have been part of CSK together for a decade. Both the players had joined CSK in 2008. Dhoni, CSK’s costliest pick in IPL 2008 auction, has led the Yellow Army in every IPL game he has played for the franchise. Under him, they have won 100 out of 163 matches. Dhoni has also played for Rising Pune Supergiant, Rising Pune Supergiants in the seasons when CSK were banned from the IPL.

Dhoni achieved the feat before Rohit Sharma who played his 197th match against Kings XI Punjab. The next name on the list is former Kolkata Knight Riders captain Dinesh Karthik who has played 191 games, followed by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper Virat Kohli with 186 IPL caps. Kohli has become the first player in the history of the IPL to feature in 200 matches for a single franchise.

“RCB means a lot to me, not many understand that emotion. 200 games for them is unbelievable, I wouldn’t have believed it in 2008. It is an honour, they’ve kept me and I have stayed on,” Kohli had said before the start of RCB’s game against Kings XI. The 31-year-old batsman is the leading run-scorer in IPL history, accumulating 5668 runs at an average of 38.55 and strike rate of 131.41.

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