Chennai Super Kings’ game against Rajasthan Royals in Chepauk on May 12 is their last on home ground in the league stage of IPL 2024.

New Delhi: Chennai Super Kings left their fans intrigued ahead of their final home game against Rajasthan Royals on Sunday at Chepauk with a social media post that requested those in the stadium to ‘stay back’. Usually, every team, after playing their final home game in any Indian Premier League (IPL) season, do a lap of honour, thanking the supporters who give it their all to back the franchise in good and bad times. While that may be one of the cases for the social media post, several fans also predicted something might be coming from MS Dhoni – their own ‘Thala’ after the match.

“Requesting the Superfans to Stay back after the game! Something special coming your way! #CSKvRR #YellorukkumThanks,” read the post from Chennai Super Kings.

Although nothing has been officially out, but IPL 2024 is likely to be Dhoni’s last in his career. Giving away the leadership duties just before the start of the season was an indication of the same. The five-time IPL-winning captain has kept himself late in batting due to his injured knee, something that has been troubling him since the previous season.

In 13 matches so far in IPL 2024, Dhoni accumulated 136 runs at an impressive strike rate of 226.66. In fact, he has been dismissed just once in this season. Earlier, Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson won the toss and elected to bat. Dhruv Jurel was included in Rajasthan Royals’ playing XI, while CSK brought in Maheesh Theekshana in place of Mitchell Santner.

For fourth-placed CSK, it is important to win both their remaining matches as they have 12 points from as many games with a net run rate of 0.491. The second-placed Rajasthan Royals will look bounce back after two consecutive defeats. Rajasthan are second with 16 points in 11 matches.