The team meeting we had before IPL final lasted hardly five seconds, reveals MS Dhoni

06/12/2018

MS Dhoni has stated that CSK’s success owed to the less number of team meetings throughout the tournament as everyone knew their role and also revealed that they only had a 5-second meeting before the final. He also said that their core players' familiarity with the situations really helped them.

MS Dhoni has always spread a sense of calmness around himself in the dressing room, which has been a big reason for Chennai Super Kings success, especially in the high-pressure games. For the most part, their third IPL triumph this season could be attributed to his attitude only.

In a high octane tournament like IPL where the sides are always playing under immense pressure to cook up strategies in order to get ahead of the opposition, the biggest pressure has always remained with the captain. However, things don’t work like this in three-time IPL champions, Chennai Super Kings’ dressing room. Surprisingly, MS Dhoni has revealed that CSK's team meeting before the 2018 IPL final against the Sunrisers Hyderabad, which they won by eight wickets riding on a brilliant hundred by Shane Watson, lasted only five seconds.

"I think at that point of time, we were quite relaxed about how we'd conducted ourselves throughout the tournament. And everybody's role and responsibilities were very clear. So, you need to address something if it really needs to be addressed. You know, there's no point, just because if there's a captain and a coach of the team, you've to say something," Dhoni said at an event on Monday as quoted by Cricbuzz. "The team meeting that we had, lasted hardly five seconds. (Stephen) Fleming was like: 'Go, get it boys.' And it got over."

CSK, who were criticized for picking up a bit-too-old team, gave a brilliant reply to all the critics by lifting the title. While Dhoni turned the clock back through some vintage knocks, there were other players who'd been a part of the CSK core in the past who did well. According to Dhoni, it was this familiarity that helped the team come along well.

"I always have felt that this was one of the secrets why CSK keep doing that (winning the IPL). We don't have a long list of meetings. We don't have too many meetings because we've played so long each with other, against each other, you know the conditions so well, you exactly know how you need to operate. And there's no rocket science.

"Yes, we've the bowlers' meetings, the batters' meeting, and I don't become a part of the batters' meeting. A lot of times, people do it because they need to tick a box. And in CSK, there's no justification that happens... you know that the bowling coach doesn't need to justify to the owners," Dhoni added.

On a lighter note, the CSK skipper revealed that the only time his team held a meeting was before the match against Kings XI Punjab, where Chris Gayle blew them away with a blistering hundred in Mohali.

"We had a bowler's meeting you know, before Gayle hit that century (against CSK). A lot of times, it happens that you do it for the sake of doing it. You know you say before the finals, 'Oh we did this, we did that.' That's not in our case. We try to keep it as simple as possible. What's important as a coaching staff, or as a captain, you need to give advices to a player according to what they can achieve. All of a sudden, you can't tell somebody, 'Ok, you need to bowl outside off-stump yorkers,' and that guy has never done that. So you've to tell that guy according to what his strength is and he's to improve his weak areas. That's what is brilliant about us," Dhoni explained.

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