Dhoni kicks off practice for IPL 12 | Cricket News

CHENNAI: Defending champions Chennai Super Kings – who started off their practice ahead of the IPL-12 season with a group of domestic players on March 7 – saw MS Dhoni join the squad on Saturday evening. The skipper – who arrived here on Friday – commenced the session with a quick run of the MA Chidambaram Stadium. Dhoni shared a few tips with medium-pacer Mohit Sharma before engaging in a long conversation with coach Stephen Fleming and other members of the support staff.

Much before Dhoni padded up, the likes of opener Murali Vijay, Suresh Raina and Ambati Rayudu spent over an hour hitting the ball to all parts of the ground. The bowling duties were shared between medium-pacers – Mohit, Shardul Thakur and KM Asif. The overseas stars – Shane Watson, Dwayne Bravo and Faf du Plessis – are expected to arrive in the coming days.

This will be the team’s final practice session ahead of the tournament opener where they take on Royal Challengers Bangalore here on March 23. CSK – who won their third crown last year – will be keen to kick off their title defense on a triumphant note. The team is scheduled to play a warm-up game on Sunday among themselves. “The match will be played from 6 and 9 pm. Entry will be free for fans and they can catch the action from the C, D and E stands (lower),” said a CSK official.

Meanwhile, the tickets for the season opener are sold out. “We started the tickets sales at around 11.30 am on Saturday. The Rs 1,300 category was the first category of tickets to go off the shelves within a few hours. The rest of the ticket sales concluded by evening,” added the official.