At the present moment, it would be very an injustice if you
talk about cricket but not about M.S. Dhoni, captain of the national cricket
team of India. Yes, we have seen him in his early days with a long haired
avatar who used explode the cricket field with fours and sixes from the moment
he faces the first ball. We have also seen him lifting the inaugural 20-20
World Cup in 2007 in South Africa. But now, we see more vital part of Dhoni – a
responsible captain with lesser attacking mood with a calm and cool image, no
matter how heated is the match he is playing. He keeps his thunder till the end
and starts the scoring of runs in a rapid pace in the last moment so that the
victory can be tastier, sweeter and memorable.
Now-a-days, we never see him any anger, rigidness or
aggression on the opposition or his teammates. I mean to say, whatever plan he
has in his mind, he just proceeds to execute them with so much simplicity, ease
and grace that the win looks dynamic in every sense. With this kind of cold
aggression, he won the ICC World Cup 2011 in Mumbai, the ICC Champions Trophy
2013 in England and the recent Celkon Mobile Cup 2013 in the Caribbean. Thus a big question rises finally, what makes
him so calm and cool? What is Dhoni’s secret of success, man? How does Dhoni execute
his plans so easily and beautifully?
His deputy Virat Kohli says that he is still learning to
manage the pressure in a knock out cricket match from him, but still has not
been able to understand the secret. But this does not mean Dhoni has some
magic. The real fact is he has gone on to achieve the best cricketing brain
with his captaincy responsibilities since 2007. He has established himself as
the best student of this gentleman’s game and that makes him very simple and
humble on and off the field. I can give you one or two instances of Dhoni’s
brilliance in cricket as follows:-
[1] In the recent Champions trophy Final, India scored 129
and England’s target was 130. But Dhoni’s words quote “God is not coming to
save us. It is we who have to fight it out” unquote fed the players with
vitamin that paid off in superb team work and an unforgettable victory.
[2] Can you remember the 2007 WT20 final against Pakistan?
Can you remember the last over of Pakistan innings? New comer Joginder Sharma
had to bowl it and Pakistan needed almost double run of the 6 balls. But
Dhoni’s words to Jogi were not to get under pressure because the batsman was
also under same amount of pressure as he had to score those runs to win the
game. If the runs are not scored, he will have to face many questions to answer
which Jogi was having for India. So, Dhoni’s words gave the tonic to Jogi to
finish off well and the rest is history.
[3] Can you remember Dhoni’s buccaneering brilliance in IPL
3? Yes, I am talking about the match against Kings XI Punjab at Dharamsala in
the HPCA stadium. Chennai Super Kings needed 20 odd runs from the final over
and it was Dhoni who turned it on for CSK with two huge sixes.
Time and again, he has delivered with ease and poise for his
country or his cricket club when situation demanded from him. There are many
such instances to watch out in his career up to now and probably in the next 5
or 6 years. That has given him new identity as “Captain Cool”.
Some cricket experts say he is very defensive rather than
going for the kill. I agree with this point only for a particular period of
time, especially when took over captaincy in all the three formats of the game –
test, T20 and ODI. But as he went on, he just went on and on.
He never forgets to give due credit to the
players/teammates/vice captain which they deserve thoroughly. This overall
attitude of Dhoni is being defined as his “Midas Touch” by cricket experts, but
factually he never thinks himself of that much higher personality. He says that
winning of cricket match is the most important for him than anything else.
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