MS Dhoni asked why the IPL Player of the Match award was given to him

MS Dhoni received the IPL Player of the Match for scoring 26 off 11 balls in the LSG vs CSK match.

In the recent Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) vs Chennai Super Kings (CSK) match in IPL 2025, MS Dhoni made 26 off 11 balls, including 4 boundaries and 1 six. He received the Player of the Match honour but questioned the title.

MS Dhoni’s candid admission on winning IPL Player of the Match after six years.

MS Dhoni put in a Player of the Match performance to lead CSK to win against LSG in IPL 2025. The franchise registered their second win in the season by defeating LSG by 5 wickets on Monday. He made 26 off 11 balls to help CSK chase the total down with 3 balls to spare. After six years, this was Dhoni’s first Player of the Match award in IPL. During the post-match presentation, Dhoni made a candid admission, saying several others could have gotten a Player of the Match accolade compared to him.

“Why are they giving me the award?”

MS Dhoni, at the post-match presentation, said, “Even today, I was like, why are they giving me the award? I feel Noor Ahmad bowled well. The new ball bowling and in between when Noor and Jaddu, you know, they bowled like four or five overs together. Those were the two spans, I think, where we did very well.” Explaining the decision to leave out Ashwin, Dhoni said, “We were actually putting too much pressure on Ash. He has to bowl two overs on wickets that were not doing a lot and the batsmen were just expressing themselves. We made a few changes where we could have more bowlers who were able to bowl in the first six.”

Dhoni added, “And if needed, if the fast bowlers, somebody goes for a run, you have Noor who can drop in with one over. So, I feel this looks like a better attack. You know, there’s more manoeuvrability for the captain.” He also expressed that he was glad to be on the winning side and hoped it would give them some momentum.