ICC Champions Trophy: Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s Midas touch

In his first assignment as captain,Dhoni won India the World T20. In 2011,he lifted the big one,the World Cup. But no captain in the history of cricket had won all three ICC majors. And that record looked to remain intact until that point on Sunday,when Raina bowled that ripper to Morgan in the 14th over of England’s chase. It was here,behind those gloved palms,with his two faithful henchmen by his side,that Dhoni,the master tactician,formulated a way to win the Champions Trophy. A way to defend a total of just 129.

Trusting slow bowlers

“It was then that I thought that with a bit of turn and with the left-right combination of Ashwin and Jadeja,it would be good to keep these two spinners for the last two overs. For the two powerplay overs. The reason being that the England batsmen are quite used to playing fast bowlers in these conditions. So our pacers would have found it difficult to contain them with only three fielders in the outer circle,” Dhoni would later say in the press conference.

When that Raina over finished,Dhoni pulled out a piece of paper and assessed his options. He had begun the innings with Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav,who had bowled the first four overs and claimed the wicket of Alastair Cook. Then Jadeja and Ashwin had come on. Dhoni kept Ashwin on from one end,extracting three straight overs from him by the halfway stage. By that time,Jadeja had bowled two,in two spells. Between them,they had removed Jonathan Trott,Joe Root and Ian Bell — the first and last stumped by Dhoni.

“I had persisted with Ashwin for three overs because Eoin Morgan had just come in. So I had told him,’Just keep the pressure on and see if he plays a bad stroke or two,'” explained Dhoni. “Had Morgan gotten out then,this game would have been a little easier for us.” But Morgan,along with Ravi Bopara,had resurrected the England innings during the brief middle stages of the rain-curtailed game. And now,with six overs remaining and six wickets in hand,England’s first 50-over world title was a shade under 10 runs an over away — not hard in a Twenty20 game.

With Ashwin and Jadeja reserved for the last two of the remaining six overs,Dhoni had to figure out a way to restrict the well-set batsmen for the following four overs. For one of those four,he could afford to bowl Jadeja,considering the all-rounder had two left. But for the remaining three,he had to choose from his pacers. “The spinners were left for the last two. For that to happen,it was very important that our fast bowlers bowled really well. So we had at least 8 or 9 runs to defend before the spinners came on in the end,” said Dhoni.

Here,he had a choice between Yadav,Kumar and Ishant. Yadav had gone for 10 from two overs and had taken the England captain’s wicket. Kumar had conceded 19 from three. And Ishant,the worst of the lot,had given away 16 from two. Dhoni chose Ishant for the 15th and the pacer went for nine more,including a last-ball six by Bopara. In such a situation,it is hard to imagine any other captain bowling Ishant again.

But Dhoni tends to back his instincts and not worry too much about the fear of losing. He left Kumar and Yadav unbowled and brought Ishant back for the 18th,the over before the batting powerplays,when England needed 28 from 18 balls. Morgan and Bopara,having brought up their half-century stand,were batting on 27 and 30 respectively. Ishant conceded a six from his second ball and sprayed the next two balls wide.

According to plan

What was the captain thinking then? Did he feel that he had made a mistake? “No. Not at all.

There was a strong breeze blowing across the stadium then and the six by Morgan had carried due to that. Ishant’s plan was the bowl well outside off stump and I thought he was struggling a bit with it. So I went to him and told him to go back to the original plan. I said,’This wide length is not working for you so try a slower one at Morgan.’ It worked.” It sure did.

Ishant’s line changed and so did the match. Rolling his fingers over the seam,pitching it in line with Morgan’s off-stump,Ishant followed Dhoni’s instructions to the T. Morgan,early into the stroke,mistimed his flick and found Ashwin’s bucket palms at midwicket. Next ball,Ishant dumped it in short. Bopara tried to keep the pull down,but it wasn’t low enough to elude Ashwin. Before those two wickets,England needed 20 runs from 16 balls with six wickets in hand. Now the tail had to face the spinners.

“I’m just glad that everyone has accepted the responsibility they’ve been given,” said Dhoni. “Everyone must be credited. Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma for the starts,Ravindra Jadeja for his ability to keep it simple and clean with the ball. He has just looked to hit the right areas and find the right lengths. That seems to be working for us and him.” Especially in the batting powerplays,where Jadeja has played that role right through the tournament.

In the semifinal against Sri Lanka in Cardiff,he had cleaned up Mahela Jayawardene,who played all around a straight one in the second over of the batting powerplay. In the final on Sunday,with a similar delivery,Jadeja had the dangerous Jos Buttler bunting at nothing more than humid air.

Then,Tim Bresnan misread another straight one and missed a sweep. Jadeja and the cordon went up together. Bresnan survived the appeal,but not the run out as he tried to scramble a quick leg bye. At the end of the over,Dhoni smiled at his and Jadeja’s success. But it wasn’t over yet. England could still sneak the 15 runs required from six balls. Now,it was time for Ashwin.

Second ball of Ashwin’s over,Stuart Broad swept him for four. And when Broad gave James Tredwell the strike,the off spinner heaved two cross batted strokes for twos to reduce the equation to every fan’s cricketing fantasy — 6 runs,one ball. Dhoni,though,was in no mood for such dream scenarios.

He waved his gloves to catch Ashwin’s attention. And once he did,he pointed towards midwicket,indicating that this is where Tredwell was taking aim,and asked Ashwin to bowl outside off.

Ashwin did as told. He bowled it short and wide of Tredwell’s off. The ball spat and turned square,much like the Raina ball had done all those overs ago. Tredwell and England didn’t stand a chance.