"The three mistakes of my life" - Dhoni's path to greatness
September 24th, 2007, Johannesburg
When Rahul Dravid announced his decision to step down as captain, BCCI decided to use the inaugural T20 World Cup as an opportunity to give youngsters a chance to play for the nation and nominated a young Mahendra Singh Dhoni to lead them. Dhoni’s first outing was against the arch rivals Pakistan. The game had gone down to the wire and witnessed the first ever bowl out in the T20 World Cup.
Dhoni walked into the field with a wide grin on his face and it was clear that he wasn’t one to fall prey to pressure easily. His composure was infectious as the new Indian lot looked a relaxed bunch when they came out for the ball out and hit the bulls eye thrice while their opponents failed to do so even once. MSD had registered his first win and there were many more to come.
Two weeks later, the two teams met again, this time in the final. India had a dream run in the tournament, overpowering the likes of South Africa, England and Australia. The final was a nail-biter of a match and had gone down to the wire again. Pakistan needed 12 runs off the last over with only one wicket in hand. The in-form Misbah Ul Haq was on strike and Dhoni had to make a vital decision on who would bowl the last over.
At one end, there was the little known Joginder Sharma and at the other was Harbhajan , the most experienced bowler in the team. Joginder (Jogi) had done reasonably well in the match with his out swingers while Harbhajan, who had a great tournament until then, was struggling to get this Yorkers in and was slog swept and pulled by Misbah for 3 sixes in his previous over. But just two nights back he had successfully uprooted the stumps of Michael Clark in the death overs to turn the game in India’s favor.
Most would have thought that Dhoni would give him another go and hope that he replicates the success again. It was then that Dhoni had made the first mistake of his life; he chose the new comer over the veteran!
There was a plan – Jogi would bowl his out swingers wide outside off stump to a packed offside field. Misbah’s options were limited; with the number 11 at the other end, he couldn’t afford to look for singles and had to go for the full Monty and back himself to clear the offside field.
In the second ball of the over, he did exactly that, with a thundering six! The game was even-stevens now. Pakistan was one hit away and India one wicket away, from creating history. Jogi stuck to the plan and it paid off. Misbah tried to shuffled across the off stump and scoop the bowl over fine leg, but all he managed to do was provide Sreesanth with a simple catch that sealed the deal for India.
Dhoni and his boys had created history and they had done it in style. India had found a new leader, one who showed courage to believe in current form over experience. This was the beginning of a new chapter for Indian cricket.
April 2, 2011, Mumbai
Team India had found themselves in the World Cup finals again, but this time in the 50 over format. A lot had changed since their win in Johannesburg. Under the leadership of Dhoni, India had evolved into an incredible unit; they were the clear favorites for the tournament.
Sri Lanka posted an imposing total of 274 runs on board and Malinga made early inroads into the Indian top order, dismissing both Sehwag and Sachin early on. Kohli and Gambhir had somewhat steadied the ship with an 83 run stand, but when Dilshan caught Kohli off his own bowling, India were reeling with 160 runs more to get at almost 6 runs per over.