India vs Australia 1st ODI: The day MS Dhoni — the son — returned home

When Pandya struck those massive sixes, they kept yelling, “Dhoni, Dhoni….” So did they when Pandya snared Travis Head’s edge to Dhoni and Kuldeep Yadav induced a snick off David Warner into Dhoni’s gloves. They were too far-flung from Dhoni to pick him screaming at Yadav in his husky voice to bowl closer and a tad shorter at Warner’s stumps. Or when he kept yelping at Yuzvendra Chahal to bowl fuller and wider at Glenn Maxwell. Or when he urged the fielders to come forward or go deeper. But it didn’t matter whether they could hear Dhoni’s instructions or not. Every wicket and every catch, they were convinced had a stamp of Dhoni’s wisdom.

Thus, before, after and throughout the match, the same chorus reverberated and travelled beyond the stands of the MA Chidambaram Stadium. So much so that Dhoni can legitimately claim to be the man who finally broke through the famed impartiality of the Chennai crowd. These days, unlike the past, you can’t imagine the bowler or the team that beats Dhoni getting as rousing an applause as did the Pakistanis in that epic Test in 1999.

Over the years, whether it be in yellow, blue or white flannels, Dhoni has dutifully reciprocated the crowd’s unfettered affection. (Source: AP)

Favourite hunting ground

Over the years, whether it be in yellow, blue or white flannels, Dhoni has dutifully reciprocated the crowd’s unfettered affection. First his Test debut in 2005, then the barracking unbeaten 139 for Asian XI against World XI on his very first limited-overs appearance at this ground. Then the calculated treatise against Pakistan in 2012, the mauling of Australia en route to his first and only Test double, and in between numerous IPL cameos, too many that it obscures the memory. They will embed his 79 too into their hearts. There was a sense of occasion too — it was his 100th fifty-plus international score across formats.

Tailormade situation

It was a knock that would remain entrenched in their memory, not for the dazzle or fluency of his stroke-play, but the very Dhoni-ness of it. The circumstances were flawlessly scripted for him — India in deep crisis, Dhoni walking out, winding up his shoulders, practising that innocuous front-foot defence, removing and fastening his gloves several times between deliveries, orchestrating the resurrection without the slightest betrayal of fuss and with the assurance of a seen-it-all-several-times general.

By the time he arrived, at the stroke of the 16th over, the disciplined Australian pacers had rolled up the top four — Kohli and Manish Pandey for ducks, Ajinkya Rahane for five and their perpetual bogeyman Rohit Sharma for 28. Five overs later, he lost the last of his specialist batting colleagues, Kedar Jadhav, for a crisp 40. Australia would’ve sniffed an opportunity to bundle India for a meagre score on a surface that seemed to get increasingly sluggish. But they’d know better the threat Dhoni carries, or even a reasonably novice batsman batting with Dhoni. Much of his big-hitting skills might have diminished but not the cunning of his brain or the resolve of his heart.

The day was surely going to be Dhoni’s. Just Dhoni’s. Come flood, fire or famine. (Source: AP)

Waiting to strike

Like in his recent down-from-the-dumps association with Bhuvneshwar Kumar in Pallekele, he is content playing the support cast, rotating strike, encouraging and guiding his partners, admonishing them when they flirt with something silly, applauding their good strokes, pushing them for the extra runs, and sporadically reminding that his strokes have still the incandescent fury of youth.

His first boundary came off the 67th ball he faced — by that time, Pandya was back in the pavilion after a furious onslaught, punctuated with five sixes and as many boundaries, and even Bhuvneshwar Kumar had stroked a four.

But just then, he travelled back in time and smeared James Faulkner over extra cover, a stroke of brutal, ballistic beauty. He dispatched the same bowler for three more boundaries and another savage six, thus giving the final impetus to a total that was imposing on a slumberous pitch. And whetting the crowd’s joy.

Pandya’s the bigger impact

Flipping through the scorecard, it’s daylight clear that Pandya had a bigger impact, the sort of rare, sterling all-round performance coming from an Indian, than Dhoni. It could have a wider implication on Indian cricket as well, for he could finally end India’s perpetual pursuit of a half-competent fast-bowling all-rounder. But try selling these arguments to the Chennai crowd, on a day they saw their hero after 697 days. It’s the longest they’d been deprived of Dhoni since the IPL. With CSK having served their two-year IPL ban, they needn’t wait this long to soak him next time. April of 2018 won’t be their cruellest month.