Sanju Samson did not need a long appeal to know what he had done. The moment Shubman Gill missed Noor Ahmad down the leg side, Samson moved, gathered and broke the stumps in one hard flash. For a split second at Chepauk, Chennai Super Kings had an old MS Dhoni memory in new gloves.
CSK needed that moment badly. They had only 158 to defend after being pushed into survival mode by Gujarat Titans’ bowlers. Ruturaj Gaikwad’s unbeaten 74 dragged them to 158/7, but the innings had been in trouble at 43/4 after 10 overs before CSK scored 115 in the final 10. Gujarat then began the chase with control, reaching 55/0 after the powerplay before Samson gave CSK their first opening.
Samson’s gloves carry Dhoni’s old imprint
The dismissal came in the seventh over. Noor Ahmad went full and down the leg side, Gill missed the flick, and Samson shifted quickly to his left. The collection was clean. The break was quicker. The third umpire confirmed Gill’s back foot was in the air when the bails came off. Gill was gone for 33, and CSK had removed the GT captain just when the chase had begun to settle.
Noor will get the wicket in the scorecard, but the moment belonged to Samson.
The reason it immediately brought Dhoni to mind was not only the speed. It was the economy of movement. Samson did not collect, reset and then attack the stumps. His gloves stayed extended, the hands travelled a short distance, and the bails came off before Gill could recover his balance. That was Dhoni’s language behind the stumps.
Gill has felt it before. In the IPL 2023 final, Dhoni stumped him off Ravindra Jadeja after the GT opener had raced to 39 off 20 and added 67 for the first wicket. It was one of those small but decisive Dhoni interventions: the bowler created the chance, but the keeper turned it into a wicket.
Dhoni had produced a similar dismissal against Bangladesh in the 2016 T20 World Cup too. Sabbir Rahman overbalanced while trying to work Suresh Raina down the leg side, and Dhoni whipped off the bails before the batter could get back. India eventually won that Bengaluru thriller by one run, but Dhoni’s leg-side stumping was one of the passages that kept the match alive.
Samson’s stumping of Gill sits in that same family of dismissals. The ball itself was not a classic wicket-taking delivery. It was down leg. It could easily have become a missed run-scoring chance. Samson converted it into a wicket through positioning, balance and arm speed.
That technical layer was picked up on commentary, where Katey Martin said Samson had spoken to Dhoni ahead of the season about increasing his arm speed behind the stumps. The advice appeared to centre on keeping the gloves extended rather than following the more traditional collect-and-break method.
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Against Gill, that adjustment was visible. Sanju Samson’s hands were already in the danger zone. The collection and the breaking of the stumps became part of the same movement. Gill’s back foot had almost no time to return.
For CSK, the wicket was valuable because of the match situation. Gujarat had taken the required rate down early and Shubman Gill was controlling the chase. CSK’s total demanded pressure through dots and wickets, not containment alone. Samson’s stumping gave them a wicket that did not come from a perfect delivery. It came from a keeper manufacturing damage from a half-chance.
It was not nostalgia for the sake of nostalgia. It was not a loose visual resemblance. It was the same wicketkeeping principle: reduce the movement, stay ahead of the batter, and make the crease smaller than it looks.
MS Dhoni made that skill famous in yellow and for India. Samson, standing behind the stumps for CSK, produced a moment that carried the same signature. The ball passed the bat, the foot lifted for a fraction, and the bails were gone before Gill could negotiate his way back.
CSK were looking for a spark in a defence of 158. Samson gave them one with Dhoni’s old method written all over it.