IPL'19: Dhoni's art of captaincy now a question for IIT students!

"If MS Dhoni wins toss, would you recommend batting or fielding first?" the question seeks answers from the students.

Chennai: Cricket is arguably India's most favourite sports. The Indians follow every moment of the game so passionately. With the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019 is embracing its business end, every decision of captains is being scrutinised very closely.

So, before the high-octane Qualifier 1 between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians at Chepauk, IIT Madras professor Vignesh came up with a unique question for his students in the 'Material and Energy Balances' question paper for the final semester.

International Cricket Council (ICC) posted the photo of the question on its social media page attributing IIT Madras professor Vignesh.

He dished out an interesting question to his students asking them to recommend CSK captain MS Dhoni batting or fielding first, providing the weather conditions of Chennai.

Considering the extreme weather conditions in Chennai, which rose to 39-degree Celsius at the beginning of the match and then dropped to 27 degrees Celsius at the start of the second innings, the question asked what would be Dhoni's decision if he wins the toss.

ICC posted a photo of the question paper on its Twitter page.

"If MS Dhoni wins toss, would you recommend batting or fielding first?" the question seeks answers from the students.

The question also cited that dew will be a major deciding factor in the match as bowlers and spinners will find it difficult to grip the ball due to dew in the second innings.

Dhoni won the toss, decided to bat first

Apparently, Dhoni won the toss in the match and decided to bat first, but his decision proved otherwise as CSK batsmen were restricted to below par 131 for 4 in 20 overs by MI bowlers.

It must be noted that all four wickets of CSK were claimed by spinners. While Rahul Chahar took two Krunal Pandya and Jayant Yadav got one each.

In response to 132 runs target, MI cruised to a comfortable six-wicket win against CSK. Suryakumar Yadav slammed unbeaten 71 off 54 balls.

Nevertheless, as per the given situation in the IIT Madras's question paper, CSK bowlers struggled to pitch the ball at the desired area as dew appeared as a major factor in the second innings. Taking full benefit of their erratic bowling, Suryakumar played lively innings to help MI qualify for the final of IPL 2019 as the first team.

So, now the question is- was Dhoni's decision of opting to bat right or wrong?

ICC sought your answer!