IPL Champion MS Dhoni keen to continue for another season

Chennai Super Kings skipper MS Dhoni feels he owes the fans another IPL T20 season following his team™s five-wicket victory in the 2023 IPL final against Gujarat Titans.

The Chennai side managed to win via D/L on the last ball of a reduced 15-over run chase of 171 runs, with the Titans having managed to put up 214/4 before the rain-affected breaks.

Dhoni, however, failed to contribute to the run chase after being dismissed for a golden duck, after being caught by David Miller off the bowling off Mohit Sharma, with new batsman Ravindra Jadeja taking CSK over the line.

Dhoni then admitted to Harsha Bhogle in the post-match that "circumstantially, it is a great time to announce the retirement. The easy thing for me to say is thank you and retire. But the hard thing to do is to work hard for nine months and try to play one more IPL season."

The former India wicketkeeper-batsman has now won the IPL title on five occasions with CSK, having led them to ten finals of the tournament.

"The body has to hold up. But the amount of love I have received from CSK fans, it would be a gift for them to play one more season. The way they've shown their love and emotion, it's something I need to do for them," added Dhoni.

It's the last part of my career. It started over here and the full house was chanting my name. It was my same thing in Chennai, but it will be good to come back and play whatever I can," said the 41-year-old.

Another season in the IPL for Dhoni could see him surpass 250 IPL matches in his career [currently has 247], and possibly a chance to register his first IPL century before retirement.