Tamil Nadu borrow MS Dhoni’s idea in Vijay Hazare Trophy final; sends bowlers to bat in the top-order

Remember the ‘chaos theory’? When Chennai Super Kings were faced with a difficult situation in their comeback season after the ban in 2018, master tactician MS Dhoni pulled off an incredible move that derailed Kings XI Punjab.

On a green Pune wicket, Punjab’s batters ambled the team along to 153 in 20 overs against a good CSK bowling attack. With 154 to win, the Ankit Rajpoot-led Punjab bowlers were all over CSK batters. Reduced to 27/3 inside the powerplay overs with Faf du Plessis, Ambati Rayudu and Sam Billings back in the hut. While Dhoni or Dwayne Bravo was expected to join Suresh Raina in the middle, Dhoni pulled a surprise move and sent in Harbhajan Singh and when another wicket fell, it was Deepak Chahar in.

Critics and fans wondered what Dhoni was up to, but Chahar’s cameo and Raina’s measured innings helped CSK over the line with Dhoni as usual providing the finishing touches. Wondering what happened? It was ‘chaos theory’.

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MS Dhoni explained his move in the post-match press conference. 

“The ball was definitely swinging a bit, especially more for Ankit (Rajpoot) and the other two fast bowlers. In a game like this, you want to take as many wickets as possible when it is swinging. With Bhajji (Harbhajan) or Chahar going in, it creates a bit of chaos. The bowlers all of a sudden starts to bowl yorkers, short of length or bouncers. When batsmen are batting, the bowlers somehow stick to a very good line and length,” Dhoni had said, talking about his innovative plan.

How did Tamil Nadu take a leaf from MS Dhoni in the Vijay Hazare Trophy final?

Something similar unfolded in the Vijay Hazare Trophy final between Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh in the Sawai Mansingh stadium in Jaipur. With early movement on offer, Himachal opted to put Tamil Nadu in and promptly got rid of Baba Aparajith and Narayan Jagadeesan within the first seven overs. When Aparajith fell in the first over, though, it was Ravi Sai Kishore who walked out to bat. 

Sai Kishore has a List A batting average of 16.08 and is a genuine tailender. When the next wicket – Jagadeesan – fell to Rishi Dhawan, it was Murugan Ashwin, another tailender with a List A average of 10.8, that came in to bat.

Inverting the batting order was done as early as in 1937 by Sir Donald Bradman when he inverted the batting order in the New Year’s Test. He sent out his genuine tailenders, Bill O’Reilly and Chuck Fleetwood-Smith, out to open and they were followed by Frank Ward, the usual No.10.

The chaos theory isn’t too dissimilar but looks to play with the minds of the bowlers on a juicy wicket. Like with Chahar and Harbhajan that day, the Himachal bowlers were put off by the move and Tamil Nadu did not lose another wicket until the 12th over when Kishore was dismissed by Pankaj Jaiswal and Dinesh Karthik came in to bat.