Former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni shocked his fans two days ago when he announced his retirement from international cricket. Cricket fans all over the world congratulated Mahi on his remarkable career that steered India through various difficult phases. Captain cool is known for his style of decision making and unique shots that most of the players can’t even attempt to play. There are various incidents where Dhoni surprised many, including his teammates, during a match. One such incident happened during the India tour of Australia in 2008, which is not known to many.
Match 4, Commonwealth Bank Series, Feb 10, 2008: Australian captain Ricky Ponting won the toss and decided to set a target for India in the day-night ODI. Indian pace attack was being led by inexperienced Ishant Sharma and S Sreesanth and the Aussies would’ve thought to grab the opportunity and give the Indian bowlers a beating on the foreign soil. It took Sreesanth just 3 balls to give the Kangaroos a reality check. Explosive opener Adam Gilchrist was sent back for a duck by the aggressive pacer. Gilchrist got lbw out, and the disappointed Australian crowd saw the men in blue celebrate. Mathew Hayden was joined by skipper Ricky Ponting, and Hayden continued to play his natural game. The explosive southpaw hit 5 boundaries and was looking dangerous. However, his joy was short-lived as Ishant Sharma trapped him, and the ball rested in Dhoni’s gloves after kissing the edge of Hayden’s bat. Within a few minutes, the backbone of Australia’s middle-order was broken by the ‘inexperienced’ Indian pace attack. Dhoni’s men had made it clear that Indian bowlers were not there for a beating. Ishant got the prized wicket of Ponting for just 9 runs. Michael Clarke got out to Irfan Pathan for a score of 11. Dangerous Andrew Symonds gifted Ishant his 3rd wicket of the match after scoring just 14 runs. Australia’s scoreboard looked miserable. Mike Hussey came to the rescue and scored a well-fought 65. Apart from him, no one could manage to score even 20 runs. Mister Cricket remained not out for 65, but despite his efforts, Australia was reduced to 159 at the end of 43.1 overs. It had become evident in the first half itself that the road ahead was not easy for the Kangaroos. The high scoring ground of Melbourne was devoid of boundaries courtesy: MS Dhoni’s bowlers.
2nd innings: India needed 160 runs to defeat the then world champions in their own backyard, but the runs still had to be scored. Unlike Indian bowling, their batting had no dearth of experience. The batting line up featured legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni himself. But, the Australian bowling line up was armed to the teeth, and the run-chase had to be a tricky one for the men in blue. Sachin and Sehwag started beautifully, with both of them scoring boundaries. Nathan Bracken drew the first blood for Australia when he got Sehwag at just 11. Sachin struggled throughout the innings before he departed after scoring a well-fought 44 that consisted of just 3 boundaries. Irfan Pathan and Gautam Gambhir tried to run the scoreboard but eventually returned to the pavilion after scoring 18 and 21, respectively. Tensions entered the dressing room when Yuvraj got out at a cheap score of 3. But amid all the chaos, there was a lot of calm in the dressing room as the world’s best finisher of the game was in the middle. MS Dhoni was joined by young but dependable Rohit Sharma. The real story began at this moment. The two started building the innings without taking any risk and the victory was visible. The moment has been beautifully described in Bharat Sundaresan’s book — The Dhoni Touch. When India were just 10 runs away from victory, and the win was inevitable, Dhoni signaled towards the dressing room and called for new gloves. All of this was done by captain cool to deliver a message to his team. Dhoni knew his men would celebrate wildly after defeating the Aussies. He asked the reserve player who bought the gloves to tell all the players not to come to the balcony to celebrate and behave like it’s a routine victory. He also told the young Rohit Sharma to shake hands with Aussies normally after winning and do not express any delight. Dhoni scored the winning runs, and India chased down the total in 45.5 overs with 5 wickets in hand. No wild celebration was seen. It was a message to his team by Young, but smart captain MS Dhoni but the message was for the Aussies. Dhoni wanted to send a signal that the victory didn’t come by chance. He wanted to tell the world champions that this will happen again and again, and by god, it did. Dhoni’s men defeated the Aussies in their own backyard, and the world champions were humbled. The Kangaroos that were famous for intimidating their opponents were tamed by the legend of MS and that too without any drama. That was the beginning of an end. The end of Australia’s dominance in ODI cricket. The rest is history!
