Dhoni stars in a fabulous win

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

It was all about Mahendra Singh Dhoni at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur on October 28. He played the innings of his lifetime that enabled India to erect their highest-ever ODI total against Australia. Then he led from the front in the field until he himself whipped the bails off to run out the last man to signal the end of the match.

The skipper was the star of India’s most comprehensive win over Australia for quite some time. The Indians needed something as awesome as this one to stamp their authority over the Aussies whom they have been giving tough time for a number of years now.

The Indian cricket fans would remember the day for a long time as they watched the Aussies being floored decisively by a determined outfit who outplayed their fancied rivals in the two key departments of the game, batting and bowling.

It doesn’t really how many qualified coaches do they hire and how many youngsters do they blood, the standard of Indian fielding remained as dismal as it has mostly been over the years. Their batting and bowling has improved in leaps and bounds but fielding is an area that remains a cause of concern for them all along.

The Indians are fortunate to have been blessed by so many outstanding batsmen and bowlers at the moment. No other team possibly can be expected to win a game if they field as poorly as they do.

What a pity that they could still not raise their spirits in the field when in the driving seat. The Australians were always going to struggle while chasing a target of 355 against a potent bowling attack.

The Indians would have won the match by a much bigger margin if their fielding was upto the mark. The manner in which Praveen Kumar misfielded more than once was shameful of an international cricketer. He made a mess of a catch in the deep that should have been nothing more than a regulation catch near the fence. Instead he gifted a six to Shaun Marsh much to the dismay of left-arm spinner Ravindu Jadeja who was bowling exceptionally well.

The catching technique of Sachin Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh in the outfield also left a lot to be desired. Even the schoolboys in Australia and South Africa are expected to take the catches that they dropped.

The Indians should be indebted to their captain for not having lost his cool even with those dreaded lapses in the field by the celebrated members of his team. He made near perfect bowling changes to ensure that the match was never opened.

Earlier in the day Dhoni entertained the crowd with one of the greatest ODI innings. Coming in to bat at number five he initially consolidated the innings with Gautam Gambhir and then cut loose in the company of Suresh Raina. He scored 124 off 107 balls to power India to their highest-ever total against Australia.