The Lankan connection

Four years later,Murali was bowling,around the wicket,in another World Cup. A final. His final international match. His first 5.4 overs had cost only 16 runs. Dhoni was at the other end once more. India needed 122 from 116,with seven wickets in hand.

The action was much the same,without quite as much torque ripping through his injury-ravaged body at follow-through as before. Dhoni rocked back again,his backlift a little less extravagant than before,and crashed the ball to the cover point fence.

When the Lankans saw the Indian skipper walk out at the fall of Virat Kohlis wicket,their shoulders must have dropped a couple of millimeters at least. Since that golden duck in Trinidad,Dhoni had batted 26 times against them in ODIs,and scored over 1200 runs,with a century and eleven fifties.

A year on from his cluelessness against Murali,he had missed a Test series in Sri Lanka,where Murali and a new sidekick,Ajantha Mendis,had tormented every single Indian batsman. Having joined the team for the five-match ODI series,Dhoni was expected to join their ranks,or struggle even more. Nobody expected his autodidact technique to survive an examination that the likes of Sachin Tendulkar,VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid had failed.

But Dhoni coped,and ended the series as its top run-getter. India won 3-2. With time,batsmen will get used to playing him, he announced.

And they did. Especially the Indians. To the extent that Sri Lanka left Mendis out of their eleven in the World Cup final because they were playing India. Even though he had picked up seven wickets in the tournament at 19.14,with an economy rate of 3.14.