Coming in typically with only five-and-a-half overs left against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Thursday, the Chennai Super Kings captain hit only one boundary.
Instead, he decided to deal in sixes, hitting eight of them - five in one over off Thisara Perera - and finished with 63 off 19 balls, taking the team's total to 202 for four in the Champions League T20 match.
In reply, the inform Shikhar Dhawan and Parthiv Patel got the Sunrisers off to a flyer, putting up a 87 in 9.2 before Patel was run out on 36.
Dhawan, given a let-off on 35 by Jason Holder at midwicket, slammed R Ashwin over long-off for a six and clubbed the seamers with help of some innovative strokeplay.
Dhoni gave a preview to the show that followed when he hit Jean-Paul Duminy straight to the president's box off only the second ball he played.
Duminy would thank his stars that it was his last over because he avoided the worst. Poor Thisara Perera wasn't so lucky.
The over started ominously when the Sri Lankan bowled a wide down the leg side. Then Dhoni hit him over long-on when he pitched within the stumps.
That extracted another wide, and Ishant Sharma's misfielding kept Dhoni on strike. The next four balls went out of the park - over square leg, point, wide mid-on and third man respectively.
Only Dale Steyn could keep the CSK captain under some control, conceding a lone boundary.
Darren Sammy bowled the last over and decided to go wide off the stumps so that Dhoni did not get it in his favourite area.
But that didn't pay off. MSD made good enough connection to hit him out of the ground twice over cover, completing his half-century off 16 balls.
The Dhoni show took the spotlight away from another Suresh Raina classic. The man seems to be on a mission to turn Ranchi into his home venue.
After hitting a match-winning 47 against Titans the other day, he delivered another clinical performance (84 off 57 balls) against a disciplined Hyderabad attack.
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