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Dhoni won the toss and chose to bat
Chennai Super Kings beat Delhi Daredevils by 33 runs in their Indian Premier League match at Chepauk on Tuesday to move back to the top of the table.
Opting to bat, Chennai scored 168 for four, and then restricted Delhi to 135 for nine.
Chennai made one change to their playing XI, bringing in Albie Morkel in place of Chris Morris. Roelof van der Merwe came in place of Mahela Jayawardene for Delhi Daredevils.
Hussey, Vijay added 61 runs
The Super Kings were off to a sedate start with both openers Murali Vijay (26) and Michael Hussey (31) mixing caution with aggression in the early part of the innings.
Vijay was a bit lucky as he was dropped by Kedar Jadhav off Ashish Nehra in the third over.
Hussey hit Irfan Pathan for two successive fours to get a bit of momentum for the home team, before Vijay hammered Johan Botha for two fours and a six over long-on to set the ball rolling.
The two added 61 runs for the first wicket.
Delhi struck thrice in quick succession
Luck was on Vijay's on a couple of occasions. However, the Chennai player was not third time lucky as a diving Ben Rohrer flicked the ball onto the stumps catching Vijay short of the crease.
Two overs later, Umesh Yadav snared the big fish as he bounced out Hussey who lobbed a catch to Virender Sehwag at short fine-leg.
Another danger man, Suresh Raina (7), soon made his way back to the pavilion after driving Roelof van der Merwe straight to stand-in skipper David Warner at extra cover.
Jadeja contributed 24
Chennai rode on Dhoni's hurricane knock and his fourth-wicket 57-run partnership with Ravindra Jadeja (24) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.
Jadeja's 17-ball knock was inclusive of two boundaries.
He was cleaned up by Umesh Yadav when the home side's total read 131.
Umesh Yadav picked up two wickets
Umesh Yadav was the pick of the Delhi bowlers.
The 25-year-old impressed with figures of two for 26.
He picked up the wickets of Mike Hussey and Ravindra Jadeja.
Dhoni led from the front
Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni led by example with a typically aggressive 35-ball 58 to power Chennai Super Kings to a competitive 168 for four.
Dhoni smashed two boundaries and four sixes and also added 37 runs in just three overs with Dwayne Bravo.
Dhoni whacked Ashish Nehra for 18 runs in the innings' penultimate over but the last over, bowled by Umesh Yadav, proved to be a good one for Delhi as he conceded just eight runs.
Mohit Sharma picked up two wickets
Chennai got off to a spectacular start with the ball, Mohit Sharma providing them the breakthrough in the second ball of the Delhi innings, having Virender Sehwag caught behind.
Unmukt Chand (16) and Johan Botha (23) added 34 runs for the second wicket before Sharma struck agagin, having the former caught by Jason Holder.
Sharma was impressive yet again, ending with figures of two for 17.
Morkel was impressive with the ball
Albie Morkel was impressive with the ball as well.
The South African picked up three wickets (3-32).
He first had Kedar Jadhav (2) caught behind before coming back to have Ben Rohrer (4) caught by R Ashwin at square leg.
Rohrer's dismissal reduced Delhi to 63 for five in the 10th over and the visitors could not mount a comeback thereafter.
Morkel returned to have captain David Warner (44) caught by Murali Vijay at deep square leg in his final over to seal Delhi's fate.