5 Dhoni masterstrokes during India's nail-biting win over Bangladesh
India pulled off a famous win over Bangladesh on Wednesday, a victory by 1 run that kept their hopes alive of qualifying for the World T20 semis. This match, which already has entered the annals of the most unbelievable victories pulled off by Team India, might also be remembered in future as the match that ignited their 2016 World T20 campaign. For the longest time on Wednesday, it looked as if the hosts, the pre-tournament favourites, were going to have to face the ignominy of an early exit.
One of the reasons why India have come out on top in several similar close matches in recent years is the captaincy of MS Dhoni, who has made the art of finishing out matches his own. When most players suffer a brain freeze in the pressure of the situation is when Dhoni’s mind seems to work the best.
When a lot of Indian fans were switching off their television sets in despair as the Bangladeshi batsmen seemed to be on course to inflicting a painful defeat, Dhoni was producing his top game – plugging holes in his field, listening to his players and talking to them, and in general bringing a method to the madness that could have easily taken the game away from a less aware captain.
Five masterstrokes that were seen from the India captain:
Run Ashwin run! – The vital extra run
Not many would credit the last ball of the Indian batting innings of having played a vital role in the win, but it is worthwhile remembering how Dhoni pushed Ashwin for an extra run, the one run that turned out to be the difference between the two teams.
As Mustafizur pumped in a yorker off the last ball of the innings, Dhoni dug it out. A six would have got the score past 150, but he was determined to get as close to it as possible. He launched into running, but his partner was not the quickest. Ashwin put his hand up after running the single, as the throw started coming in.
Not caring if he would be run out, Dhoni started running the second run, and yelled to Ashwin to follow his lead. Ashwin did follow his captain, but he was much slower and had the throw come to the bowler’s end, he would have been gone.
Dhoni had been committed to the double from the very first, and the throw was a little wayward, and so he managed to reach his ground comfortably. India finished at 146/7. A fighting total had been achieved.