Chennai Super Kings‘ strategy of placing a straight long-on almost exactly in front of the sightscreen led to Kieron Pollard’s dismissal, with fans and pundits on social media praising the clever move.

Pollard, who retired from international cricket on April 20, came in at No.7 for Mumbai Indians against Chennai Super Kings, taking his time to get going with the bowlers maintaining tight control. Before spinner Maheesh Theekshana got ready to bowl the first ball of the 17th over to Pollard, MS Dhoni, former CSK skipper, appeared to tweak the existing field, placing the long-off fielder Shivam Dube extremely straight, almost in line with the stumps.

The move worked instantly. Theekshana proceeded to bowl a slow, short ball to Pollard outside off stump, with the batter looking to muscle the ball over the very fielder who had been stationed straight in line. He didn’t get enough power though, with Dube latching onto the catch right at the boundary line.

Over the years, Dhoni has brought about unusual field placements for Pollard in the IPL – in 2010, he famously put Matthew Hayden straighter than usual at mid-off, with Pollard playing into his hands right away and offering the fielder a catch. Incidentally, the venue on both occasions was DY Patil Stadium.

“I think he’s played to Pollard’s arrogance here”, Harsha Bhogle said on commentary. “Pollard said ‘I don’t care whether the fielder’s there, I am going to clear him. You keep a fielder there, I’ll hit it right over his head. It’s gone off right at the bottom of the bat, and the moment he hit it he said ‘Oh dear!'”

You can watch the dismissal here:

There were plenty of praise for Dhoni and CSK on social media:

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