There is hardly any cricket fan in India which doesn’t swear by the cool and calm attitude of the Former Indian Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his big list of achievements speaks best about his commitment towards Indian Cricket. Moreover, from the World cup winning moment till that Flurry of sixes during his Whole career, this former “Captain Cool” of the Indian team has achieved it all during his celebrated career.
While we just mentioned only a few of his big lists of Career Highlights, let’s take a look at 5 Instances when MS Dhoni proved to the World that he is a legend.
#1 Planning that Last Over Thriller against Bangladesh to Perfection (World cup T2O 2016)
Match: India vs Bangladesh
If you are an Indian Cricket fan, there are no points guessing which match we are talking about here. India faced Bangladesh in a Super 10 match in the World cup T20I 2016 and While chasing a target of 146, Bangladesh were looking clear winners while having one of their best players ( Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim) on the crease. Indian fans were losing hope but there was something else which was running in MS dhoni’s Mind.
Bangladesh required 11 runs off the last over and Dhoni asked Pandya to bowl the most crucial over which would be deciding the fate of the Indian team eventually. Pandya got hit for 9 runs off 3 bowls and the Rahim shown some early celebrations while hitting the 3rd bowl for a Four down the fine leg. that’s where Pandya scalped two wickets in the next two bowls and put the match into the last bowl with Bangladesh requiring 2 runs.
Dhoni planned the last bowl quite perfectly. He knew that Rahim would be looking to take two runs and that’s why he took off his right Glove while coming forward with few steps. The whole plan paid off as Rahim got run out in a close call while dhoni finishing up with the Runout quite brilliantly.
#2 Making Ishant Sharma bowl the 18th over of the Champions trophy 2013 final
Match: India vs England
Everyone knew that Indian were coming out as favourites to win the Champions trophy 2013 and even though host England was there in their way to the title, not many would have predicted that the Strong batting line up of Indian team would be bundled up for a mere score of 129 with the loss of 7 wickets.
England were now the clear favourites to win this Champions Trophy Title at their home and even though they did receive some early blows during the start of their innings, some handy innings from Ravi Bopara and Captain Eoin Morgan made their way easy.
That’s where MS dhoni’s brilliance came into the picture as he asked Ishant Sharma to bowl the 18th over of the second innings. Although everyone was surprised with this decision from MS dhoni, Ishant grabbed the key wickets of both the set batsman within the same over and put India back into the Contention of winning this game.
After both Bopara and Morgan departed, it became easy for Dhoni to bring his Spin wizards Ashwin and Jadeja and both of them cleared the lower order of English team while bringing the Champions trophy home for India. This Victory made Ms Dhoni the First ever captain in the World to have his hands on all the possible ICC trophies.
#3 Planning that wicket of Kieron Pollard in the IPL final 2010
Match: CSK vs Mumbai Indians
Dhoni is quite exclusive when it comes to planning all those field placements during those crucial junctures during a certain match. You may not find it feasible, but he has his own thoughts while putting a certain fielder at a certain position. Such was the Instance during that all crucial IPL final match between CSK vs Mumbai Indians.
Pollard was going in full throttle during Mumbai’s runs to chase and it seems like that he will easily take it away from the CSK. That where the mastermind of Dhoni showed its class and he put the Aussies Mathew Hayden into an awkward field position of Straight mid-off. While Pollard is known for his power and hitting down the ground, Dhoni played to his strength and finally been able to grab his Wicket as Pollard hit down straight into the hands of Matthew Hayden on the bowling of Albie Morkel.
Once again, the World has witnessed the Supremacy of Dhoni’s Conscience and IPL trophy 2010 went to CSK once again.
#4 Deciding on Making Joginder Sharma bowl that last over against Pakistan ( World cupT20I 2007)
Match: India vs Pakistan
You will get no brownie points for guessing this event if you are an Indian Cricket fan. It was the ultimate showdown with both the Arch rivals Indian and Pakistan to face each other in the World cup final for the very first time.
Although India has played like Immortals during the Whole Tournament, no one did expect that Power hitting coming from Misbah ul Haq during the Pakistani run chase in the second innings. He was belting down every Indian bowler for big hits down the ground and even though their middle-order went cheaply, they were down to last over with 13 runs required.
Everyone around the ground though that Dhoni would give the bowling to some of his Old war Horses like Harbhajan Singh but as he always does, Dhoni asked Newbie Joginder Sharma to bowl the last over. The Decision proved costly with Misbah hitting Sharma for a mighty six initially and everyone felt that Pakistan would take it home easily. That’s when Misbah played that “Scoop” in the air and Sreesanth bagged the most crucial catch in the Indian cricket history. India are now the T20 world champions.
#5 Promoting himself up the Order during the World cup 2011
Match: India vs Srilanka
After a gap of 28 years, India finally found themselves into the Contention of the World cup 2011 while getting better of class teams like Australia in the Semifinals. While they were playing on their own soil against the Lankans, there was a big load of Expectations on Indian shoulders and after seeing the wickets of Sachin and Sehwag, most of the Indian fans have either switched off their Televisions or has left the Ground in Dismay.
That’s where MS dhoni took the responsibility to his own shoulders by making himself promoted up the order in place of Yuvraj Singh. Everyone was surprised and puzzled but when he hit that ball from Kulasekara into the stands to make India win, no one was left with any doubt about the Master class of Dhoni.
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