IPL 2020: MS Dhoni makes 200th IPL appearance, creates history during CSK vs RR

MS Dhoni became the first-ever cricketer to make 200 appearances in the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Monday. He achieved the landmark during the IPL 2020 match between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi.

In the list of most IPL caps, Dhoni is followed by Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Rohit Sharma (197 matches) and CSK's Suresh Raina (193 matches), who is not a part of the ongoing IPL 2020. Meanwhile, Dinesh Karthik of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) is next in the list, having played 191 IPL matches ahead of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain Virat Kohli with 186 caps under his belt.

Today's (Monday) match is the battle between the bottom two teams of IPL 2020. With three wins in nine matches each for RR and CSK, Dhoni's side is placed seventh in the table with a better net run-rate than RR.

CSK have made two changes: Josh Hazlewood and Piyush Chawla have been included in their XI replacing Dwayne Bravo and Karn Sharma.

At the toss, Dhoni said," We will bat first. It is a used wicket and chances are it may slow down as the game progresses. He won't be available for the next few games. Injuries are not only our concern but the other franchises as well, that's because the players have not played for a long time. You spoke about it and that's how I got to know. It's just a number. I have been fortunate to have played so many games."

RR captain Steven Smith, who scored a half-century in their previous match, has said he would like to carry on the momentum.

"He (Stokes) has put up okay, fortunately, good to go tonight. The equation is pretty simple for us we need to keep winning, hopefully, we can start tonight. We have to bowl first, restrict them, and chase it down. We will see how we go (about his batting position). I found a bit of rhythm the other day which was nice and hopefully can carry on. We have got one change - Rajpoot comes in for Unadkat," Smith said at the toss.

Playing XIs:

Rajasthan Royals (RR): Robin Uthappa, Ben Stokes, Sanju Samson(wk), Steven Smith(c), Jos Buttler, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Ankit Rajpoot, Kartik Tyagi

Chennai Super Kings (CSK): Faf du Plessis, Sam Curran, Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni(wk/c), Ravindra Jadeja, Kedar Jadhav, Deepak Chahar, Piyush Chawla, Shardul Thakur, Josh Hazlewood