Dhoni played big hand in Pune’s rise, says skipper Smith
Australia cricket team captain Steve Smith has thanked former India captain MS Dhoni, stating that the latter has played a crucial role for the turnaround of Rising Pune Supergiant’s fortunes in the IPL where they have won four of their last five games to stay fourth on the table with 10 points from nine games. RPS started IPL on a high, beating Mumbai Indians in a dramatic style before losing their next three games on the trot. Smith, who replaced Dhoni as the side’s captain before this tournament, had come under immense criticism with the fans clearly miffed over the swap in role. The matter had turned further sour after Harsh Goenka, brother of RPS’ owner Sanjiv Goenka tweeted: “#RPSvMI Smith proved who’s the king of the jungle. Overshadows Dhoni totally. Captains innings. Great move to appoint him as captain” during the side’s opening match against Mumbai Indians on April 6. Although he had deleted the tweet later, it had drawn immense criticism from fans.
However, on Saturday, Smith cleared that none of those off-field controversies had affected his bond with the World Cup winning captain.
“It’s pretty chilled out with him. He has been fantastic and has had a few valuable contributions with the bat and he is hitting the ball really well,” Smith told IPLT20.com after beating Royal Challengers Bangalore by 61 runs.“I think he will come back to great form and have a bigger impact by the end of this IPL. I’m really excited about the next couple of games.”
Dhoni has aggregated 173 runs in the IPL so far in nine innings. Although he started the season in a patchy manner, he struck form with a match-winning knock of 61 against Sunrisers.
It’s pretty chilled out with him. He has been fantastic and has had a few valuable contributions with the bat and he is hitting the ball well. STEVE SMITH, On Dhoni’s utility