On April 12, 2023, Match No. 17 of the IPL 2023 was between MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings and Sanju Samson’s Rajasthan Royals. The high-stakes game between the two star-studded teams was played in front of a packed Chepauk crowd. However, unlike the last time, on Wednesday, CSK lost by only three runs, which was a much closer game. With the win over CSK, Rajasthan’s third win in four IPL 2023 games, the team that won the first season also moved to the top of the points table.
They often caught fans’ attention during the entertaining match between CSK and RR. However, one thing that happened during the first over of the chase, when CSK opener Ruturaj Gaikwad was on strike, and Sandeep Sharma was bowling, went ignored.
Ruturaj scored back-to-back 50s in the first two games of this year’s cash-rich league. He was lucky not to get hurt when something went wrong. During the CSK innings, Sandeep was ready to throw his fourth ball of the first over, but Ruturaj moved out of the way at the last second because something was going on behind the bowler.
But by then, Sandeep had already thrown the ball, which happened to be well-aimed at the first batter. The 26-year-old tried to protect him with his hands, but he didn’t get hurt too badly.
After the episode, Sandeep went to see if Gaikwad was okay, and they laughed. The cameraman then turned to CSK’s dressing room. England Test captain Ben Stokes, who is part of CSK’s camp for the IPL 2023, was seen laughing after the event. The film of Stokes’ reaction to the whole thing on the field is now going viral on social media sites.
Talking about the game, the Royals set a goal of 176 runs, but the home team could only score 172 runs before they lost six wickets. MS Dhoni, the captain of CSK and a legendary batter, and Ravindra Jadeja, the past captain and a star all-rounder, did everything they could to win the game for Chennai by hitting as many as five sixes in the last 15 runs of the run chase. Still, they were not able to do so.
Sandeep, brought in to replace the injured Prasidh Krishna for the hosts, kept his cool and hit Dhoni with a terrific yorker on the last ball of the game to seal RR’s win.
