MS Dhoni is one of the best skippers that international cricket has witnessed in its long history. And, Thisara Perera has come up explaining why Dhoni is said to be one of the best leaders of the game sharing a memorable incident when he was playing alongside Dhoni in an IPL game.
MS Dhoni has played only for two teams in the Indian Premier League between 2008 and 2021. He led Chennai Super Kings and Rising Pune Supergiants in his till dated stint in the cash-rich league. In 2016 when CSK got banned RPS came into the picture and Dhoni led the side in one of the best ways possible.
Thisara Perera went down the memory lane
Likes of Steve Smith, and Thisara Perera were part of that side. The latter discussed in an interview went down memory lane and discussed one of the games he played for RPS when he realized Dhoni is like a brother to him.
Thisara Perera explained that in one of the matches RPS was down at a score of 35 runs with a loss of 5 wickets and he walked out to bat. At that time, MS Dhoni asked him to just bat. The former Sri Lankan player asserted that he listened to the former Indian skipper and defended his first delivery of the game. As per him, after that Dhoni walked up to him and told him that he bought him because he can dash the balls out of the park on any ground and asked him to do the same.
Perera said that at that point no skipper would have asked him to bat freely but Dhoni did. This is what makes the latter different from other skippers in the world. The former all-rounder smashed 40 runs off 18 balls and RPS ended up at a mammoth total of around 180.
Thisara Perera added that day MS Dhoni made a special place in his heart
“I remember a special incident with MS Dhoni for Rising Pune Supergiants, in 2016, and that is where I felt that Dhoni is like my brother. In one of the matches, we were 35-5, and I came down to bat. MS was the non-striker,” Perera began, as he narrated the story to News9.
“He walked up to me and said, ‘Hi, TP. Let’s just bat’. I defended my first ball and he comes to me knocking the pitch – ‘Hey, TP. What are you doing?’ I said, ‘I am just watching the ball.’ The reply from him was very special, something which I didn’t expect with the sort of scorecard we were having at that time. ‘No, no. I picked you because you can hit the ball miles away. Go explode’.”
“And from there on, I was just hitting every ball. I got around 18-ball 40 or something, which took the momentum away from the opposition. MS played until the 20th over and we scored around 170 or 180 from 35-5. And that is why it is always special to play under MS. He is one of the best captains, I have played under in my career,” said Perera.
