Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar lauded Chennai Super Kings (CSK) skipper, MS Dhoni, for promoting himself in the batting order over an in-form Ravindra Jadeja against Delhi Capitals (DC) in the IPL 2021 Qualifier 1. CSK defeated DC by 4 wickets and broke their losing streak against Rishabh Pant-led side.

Manjrekar, while speaking to ESPN Cricinfo, said it was Dhoni's greatness to walk out to bat in a tough situation and take the risk despite being out of form. He said CSK had the other option as Dwayne Bravo which would have kept the right-left hand batting combination going, but Dhoni was the better choice. 

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"This is his greatness, he has played so many innings like this, where there is so much risk if things don't go as intended. Coming into such a situation, at this stage of his career is truly a sign of his greatness," Manjrekar said.

"See, he had to maintain the left hand-right hand combination, but if you see in the eight handers, there was Bravo as an option. But he went the right way, if you compare the batting of both Dhoni and Bravo, I still feel that Dhoni is the better batsman," he added.

Dhoni had taken a similar bold decision against Sri Lanka in the 2011 World Cup final. Manjrekar recalled his decision to bat over Yuvraj Singh and complete the job with an unbeaten 91 runs.

"If you remember, he did this in the 2011 World Cup as well. He promoted himself to maintain the left-hand-right-hand partnership because Muralidaran had 8 overs remaining," he further said.

Super Kings are now in the final of IPL 2021 and they would have to wait for Qualifier 2 to find out their opponent. This is the 9th time CSK have qualified for the IPL final. 

(With ESPNCricinfo Inputs)