There has perhaps not been a more powerful hitter of the cricket ball in Indian cricket than MS Dhoni and he wouldn’t be second to too many players in world cricket either. The game has seen classy players, players who are good at timing the ball and players who are technically very sound and Dhoni might not be one of the best in those departments, but when it comes to generating power into the shots, Dhoni is right in the top bracket.
Even though he is in the twilight of his career now, MS Dhoni showed yesterday that he was still capable of hitting the ball miles as he launched the SRH left-arm fast bowler Natarajan into the stands for a six which measured a distance of 102 meters. But, that was not the first time that Dhoni hit a 100 meter six in the IPL. He has done it quite a few times in the past as well. Here are 4 of Dhoni’s longest sixes in the IPL –
#4 Against Mumbai Indians (112 meters)
CSK was up against Mumbai Indians in the eliminator of IPL 2012 and needed some quick runs in the latter stages of the innings to post a match-winning score on the board. Dhoni turned up as usual and did the job for CSK once again, scoring 51 runs off just 20 balls hitting 6 fours and 2 sixes to power CSK past the score of 185.
During that match winning knock, Dhoni hit one of the deliveries bowled by James Franklin out of the ground for a six which measured 112 meters. It was the longest six hit by any batsman in that edition of the IPL.
#3 Against RCB (105 meters)
Dhoni was probably at the peak of his career in IPL 2013 and the RCB pacer Ravi Rampaul was bowling to him in the death. Ravi Rampaul is someone who has got a fair bit of pace and he bowls good, hard lengths as well, but Dhoni was in such prime form at that stage that he just smacked Rampaul out of the ground with absolute disdain.
The ball went miles in the air and got as much distance as the elevation. As it turned out, it was another 105 meter hit by the former Indian captain.
#2 Against Delhi Capitals (108 meters)
Dhoni was struggling a little bit in international cricket ahead of the start of IPL 2018, but just as IPL 2018 started, he regained his rhythm and was one of the most fluent run-scorers for CSK in that season, batting at the difficult positions of no. 5 and no. 6.
When Dhoni faced the rookie Indian fast bowler Avesh Khan in one of the games against Delhi, he sent the ball into the orbit with a humongous hit which landed 20 rows back into the stands. The distance of that hit measured 108 meters.
#1 Against RCB (111 meters)
This happened in one of the games of the last IPL where CSK needed 26 runs off the last over of the game to win against RCB and Dhoni was up against Umesh Yadav. Umesh probably thought Dhoni’s strength was to hit sixes down the ground, so he went short against Dhoni first up, but Dhoni out-thought him and was hanging on the back-foot waiting for the short ball already.
Just as Umesh banged it in, Dhoni picked the length of the ball and deposited it outside the stadium for a 111 meter six. Dhoni, thereafter, hit a couple of more sixes in that over, but that first six is still fresh in the minds of the CSK fans.
