Monday, June 24, 2013

MS Dhoni: Champion of Champions!!


 What a day it was yesterday! Final between India and England for the Champions Trophy. India the favorites, showing tremendous form and remaining unbeaten in the tournament. England having the home advantage, with familiar home conditions and quality bowling attack. India's batting on the other hand was clicking superbly, however the middle order was not tested yet.


 To make things more interesting, the rain God's decided to make their presence felt. It rained frequently and there was no reserve day to make things worst. Finally in the evening, the umpires decided to have a 20 over match. England had already won the toss, and decided to field, sighting the wet conditions, an early advantage for the Poms.


 India went into bat, but had 3 breaks due to rain. Well, it does affect the concentration of the batsmen, who has to come on and off the field and start all over again. To make it more challenging, it was a shortened game and there was no time to settle in again and again. Due to all this, some batsmen perished in the cause of making quick runs, before getting settled.Finally, India managed 129, thanks to good knocks by Virat Kohli and Sir Ravindra Jadeja.


 England play a very different side in T20, then what they play in a 50 over game. Without their specialists players, they were found wanting at 46 for 4. A big and potentially match winning partnership between Morgan and Bopara, saw them in good position to make it home. Then , Ishant Sharma bowled an over where he gave away a six and 2 wides, well he did get both the settled batsmen out too, in the same over.


 Finally, England tumbled after those 2. Last 2 overs were bowled by spinners. A master move from Dhoni, which payed off. 15 required off the last over, 6 off the last ball. It could have gone either way with Tredwell on strike, he went for the big six, missed it and Dhoni, Team India and more than a billion people were ecstatic, Dhoni had delivered once again for India!


 MS Dhoni, he has one each and every trophy. T20 world cup, ODI World Cup, Test Championship, One Day Championship, IPL, Champions League and now the Champions Trophy. Dhoni, is a wonderful guy with great temperament. Always lets his team celebrate and goes away from limelight, and always takes the blame if the team is not doing well...what a wonderful captain indeed.


 Comparisons with Ganguly will always be there, is he better than Ganguly, well I would say,better by leaps and bounds. I am a fan of Ganguly too, but Dhoni has got all the results and trophies for India. One might say, Ganguly had laid the foundation for the 2011 World cup, but Dhoni has done a lot more after that!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Awesome one. Don't compare him with Ganguly.....both are greats in thier own way. What Ganguly has given to Indian cricket is uncomparable. What Dhoni has done is equally unsormountable.