MS Dhoni was clean bowled for a golden duck by Punjab Kings pacer Harshal Patel today in their IPL 2024 encounter, Chennai Super Kings supporters were left stunned at Dharamsala.

MS Dhoni’s much-hyped entry soon turned into a shocker after Patel’s magical yorker took out Thala’s wicket, and he actually looked clueless about what happened.

Dhoni has only been got out twice in the competition this year, and both of those dismissals occurred against Punjab Kings in the last two games. In the 19th over of the CSK innings, Harshal Patel hit a stunning slower off-cutter that dropped over Dhoni, leaving the seasoned player absolutely out of sorts. As the supporters watched in horror, the ball continued to damage Dhoni’s stumps. Several fans were left in full disbelief when they saw Dhoni dismissed on the first ball, and the dismissal video has since gone viral on social media.

In a post-match presentation, Harshal Patel—who, along with MI bowler Jasprit Bumrah, is the most wicket-taker in the IPL 2024—spoke about MS Dhoni’s wicket and mentioned that, because of his immense respect for the veteran, he didn’t celebrate much after Thala’s wicket.

Coming at the match, CSK scored 167 for the loss of nine wickets with the partnership of Ruturaj Gaikwad’s 32 and top scorer Ravindra Jadeja’s 43. Fast bowler Arshdeep Singh got two wickets for PBKS, while Harshal Patel and Rahul Chahar each claimed three.

In consecutive deliveries, Harshal Patel and spinner Rahul Chahar removed Ruturaj Gaikwad and Shivam Dube, dealing a double blow to the Chennai Super Kings’ batting. Soon after, Moeen Ali and Daryl Mitchell strolled back to the pavilion, and seasoned all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja saved the day for the squad.

However, despite their consecutive wins, PBKS are placed at the 7^th position in the points table.

Fast bowler Matheesha Pathirana of the Chennai Super Kings suffered a serious setback on Sunday before of their IPL 2024 encounter against Punjab Kings. Pathirana, who suffered hamstring injury, will have to head back home to to Sri Lanka for a proper treatment and recovery.

The right-arm bowler, who took 13 wickets at an economy of 7.68 in six IPL 2024 matches, has been a star performer for CSK during an otherwise uneven season. Whether he will return later in the season is yet unknown to the team.

This incident coincides with worries about Deepak Chahar’s health. Earlier this week, he bowled just two deliveries in the match against Punjab Kings at the Chepauk before he strained his hamstring. The CEO of the Chennai Super Kings, Kasi Viswanathan, believes it is extremely improbable that Chahar will play for the rest of the season. The status of Deepak’s injury is not favorable. He had said on Friday that he won’t say Chahar  is ruled out of the season, but it is doubtful.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s star cricketer Mustafizur Rahman left the Chennai Super Kings camp to play for his country in the upcoming series against Zimbabwe. With 14 wickets in just nine matches, the left-arm bowler was the leading wicket-taker for CSK this season.

Chennai has five wins and an equal number of losses in 10 matches in the on-going season, and they are now ranked fifth in the points table. In to compete again against Punjab Kings at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala, the five-time champions hope to strengthen their case for playoff qualifying. In the match at Chepauk, PBKS had beaten the team Ruturaj Gaikwad-led team by seven games.

Kolkata Knight Riders registered a 24-run win against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Friday in the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League. KKR were restricted for 169 runs in 19.5 overs by the Mumbai Indians pace bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Nuwan Thushara’s three-fers. The Mumbai Indians in response were wrapped up for 145 runs as Mitchell Starc picked up a 4 wicket haul.

Venkatesh Iyer was the top scorer for Kolkata Knight Riders with a 70-run knock which took his side to the score as Manish Pandey scored 42 runs off his bat. Suryakumar Yadav was the lone ranger scoring 56 runs which gave Mumbai Indians some hope, but once he was dismissed the hosts batting order was folded by the KKR pace bowlers to pick up their 1st win at the Wankhede stadium in 12 years.

The Kolkata Knight Riders set a target of 170 runs for the Mumbai Indians. It was a disastrous start for KKR as they lost 4 important wickets in the powerplay itself and then another wicket fell in the very first ball after the first six overs. But the impact sub, Manish Pandey played the supporting role along with Venkatesh Iyer and brought the innings back to normal as the latter went on to finish with 70 runs in 52 balls to put the visitors in contention.

For Mumbai Indians, Nuwan Thushara gave outstanding bowling performance in the power play and picked up 3 important wickets. Hardik Pandya also supported in the middle overs by picking up 2 important wickets along with the lone wicket by Piyush Chawla. Jasprit Bumrah showed his class at the death overs by taking 3 important wickets in the latter stages of the innings as Mumbai Indians needed 170 to win the match. Mumbai Indians only needed 51 runs off the last 5 overs, but a superb effort from KKR’s bowlers put an end to their hopes.