How MS Dhoni's brilliant strategy helped India beat Pakistan
Looking back at the 2007 T20 World Cup bowl-out win over Pakistan, Robin Uthappa believes that former India skipper MS Dhoni deserves credit for that win. In a chat with Ish Sodhi on the Royals’ podcast, the former Karnataka batsman revealed the role that MS Dhoni played in India’s only bowl-out victory.
Uthappa believes that the former India captain’s position behind the stumps made it a lot easier for the bowlers to hit the stumps, considering they just had to bowl to him in order to give themselves the best chance of hitting the stumps.
“The momentum shifted in the last ball. And by looking at them in the bowl-out you can tell that they hadn’t practiced it. One of the things MS Dhoni did differently from what the Pakistan wicketkeeper did… The Pakistan keeper stood normally where a wicketkeeper would stand, beside the stumps, he wasn’t behind the stumps. MS Dhoni was right behind the stumps. And that made it so much easier. We just said that we had to bowl to MS, and we gave ourselves the best chance of hitting the wicket. And that’s what we did,” Uthappa said.
"MS Dhoni reinforced my belief that I'm going to hit the stumps": Uthappa
Robin Uthappa also credited MS Dhoni for further instilling confidence in himself by agreeing to let him bowl in the bowl-out without any qualms. When it was known that the bowl-out would take place, Uthappa said he asked MS Dhoni to let him have a go and his skipper immediately agreeing added to his confidence levels on the day.
“When the bowl-out actually happened, I went straight to MS Dhoni and I said, ‘bro, I’ve got to bowl.’ And he just said, ‘sure okay, cool.’ And that kind of reinforced my belief that I’m going to hit the stumps,” Uthappa added.
Uthappa also spoke about how important it was to win that match since they had never lost to Pakistan in a World Cup match before then. This match was the closest that the Indian team had come to losing to their neighbours.
India would win the bowl-out, and the MS Dhoni-led side would go on to win the T20 World Cup, beating Pakistan for a second time in the final of the tournament.