It was during the 2019 Indian Premier League when the calm captain MS Dhoni lost his cool against the umpires during the game between Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals in Jaipur. In a thrilling game of cricket, MS Dhoni scored 57 runs before being bowled by Ben Stokes for a yorker. The skipper had to walk back, but he returned to the field of play again when upset with a decision.
The next delivery after Dhoni’s wicket was a clear waist-high no-ball to Santner, which was ruled out by umpire Ulhas Gandhe after trying to raise his arm. This prompted an angry Dhoni to enter the ground and argue animatedly with Gandhe, before leg umpire Bruce Oxenford calmed him and sent him back. Then Santner finished it off in style. MS Dhoni was later docked 50 per cent of his match fees for the offence at the time.
CSK player Ambati Rayudu, recalling the incident on StarSports, revealed how Dhoni used to call him a tin roof and how the batter loses his temper easily, but on that occasion, it was a bit of role reversal. “Sometimes he would call me tin roof. At that time, there was no DRS for wide and no-ball, so we would tell that umpire that it was a wide or no-ball. He would only tell me one thing, focus on batting and don’t spread your hands, we will lose fairplay points. But that year itself, he went onto the field. So we did not lose because of me,” he says laughing on ‘Cheeky Singles’.
The dramatic incident began when umpire Gandhe signalled a no-ball off a full toss. It was not Gandhe’s call to make (being a no-ball for height) and it was overruled by square leg umpire Bruce Oxenford.
However, Dhoni, had spotted the umpire raising his arm and stormed on to the ground in protest with the match hanging in the balance. Quite a few of the Rajasthan players got involved in the heated argument, but ultimately Oxenford diffused the situation.
