West Indies Tri-series 2013 Final: India vs SL - Deciphering last few overs of the chase

Dhoni and Vinay- The real game begins!

Vinay Kumar could bat too, but I am not so sure if he can keep his head down and try not to do anything silly. So he should not have been exposed to Malinga and at the same time, Dhoni turning down scoring opportunities was not an option.

Wisely, Dhoni continued to bat the normal way, letting Vinay face Mathews, Suranga Lakmal and Shaminda Eranga. It was in the 43rd over, 9th of Malinga, when Dhoni first started protecting a fellow batsman and rightfully so. I was really nervous for the first two balls of that over, which Vinay had to face, but nothing happened.

In fact, he managed to get a single and bring Dhoni on strike. Dhoni later refused the single off the fourth ball of the 44th over, with the ball going towards third man. The trust in Bhuvi was not there this time in case of Vinay. He did not try to score off the next two deliveries and yet another over of Malinga was seen off without a big fuss, with only one more left of him.

The next over, Vinay sliced a delivery to third man and Dhoni was happy to come back for a second. Runs were important too and Vinay, if he applied himself, could face all other bowlers in the Sri Lankan line-up except Malinga.

That could be the logic, which indeed turned out to be true later. Interestingly, he refused a single off the last delivery of the 45th over and soon criticism followed on social media. Was it so difficult to understand that the single would have let Vinay on strike against Malinga, the next over?

Eventually Malinga did not bowl the 46th over but he could have very well bowled it and took both the remaining wickets with MSD left stranded at the other end. As expected, Vinay lost his composure and played a wild shot off Mathews, with only 20 needed off 23 balls, only to lose his wicket.

Dhoni-Ishant Sharma:

India needed 19 runs off 18 deliveries with one complete over of Malinga left. In a situation where Dhoni could not take any risks and Ishant would find it extremely difficult to survive Malinga’s bag of tricks, I lost hope. Even for a batsman of Dhoni’s class, it was a bit too much to ask.

But Mathews’s error came to India’s rescue yet again. He unleashed Malinga’s last over against Dhoni who happily played out the entire over, and saw off what could have been the match deciding six deliveries, scoring a couple of runs in the process too.

His intentions were clear – to save the tailender from Malinga. He even refused to let Ishant face a single ball of Malinga (refer 47th over, 5th ball). Had that single been taken, and Ishant survived the remaining one delivery, Dhoni would have got the strike for the entire next over. But Dhoni was shrewd enough to understand that one ball from Malinga posed a greater threat to the tailenders than six balls from any other Sri Lankan bowler.

Ishant had to face the entire 49th over, courtesy the correctly refused single. The only way Mathews, the bowler, looked like getting Ishant out in that over was by running him out, courtesy the panic that struck the tall Indian fast bowler. It looked like Dhoni had more belief in Ishant’s batting skills than Ishant himself.

Ishant has done it time and again in Test matches for India. Yet, he was not confident of himself in this format with the only difference here being the ever increasing run-rate. That shouldn’t have been an issue actually, as the instructions were clear for him to just preserve his wicket.

The over was seen off safely with Dhoni even coming back for a couple of runs off the second last ball. A single was avoided as chances were that Dhoni would have been stuck at the striker’s end for the last two balls, unable to get the strike back for the final over.

Then things would have got very difficult. Rather, he trusted Ishant to see off two more balls and Ishant didn’t disappoint.

Dhoni then finished off the game, hitting a six, four and another six off the last over.

Having seen very little play of Michael Bevan, Dhoni will obviously go down as the greatest finisher in my books. Overall, he has to be better though, as he is doing all this with the added responsibility of wicket-keeping and captaincy.

In my opinion, Dhoni’s tactical aspect of captaincy is weak (latest example – keeping Cheteshwar Pujara out of the team with World Cup 2015 at Australia and New Zealand plus two new balls and bat Dhoni (himself) way too low down the order at no.6) but as a one day international player, he is as good as you can get.

He was being blasted at, both for taking and turning down singles throughout the last 10 overs of the game. But there was planning behind every run taken and every run refused.

All the way throughout his career, he has been criticised despite performing well. But that is none of his problem, and the fans need to honour his contribution.