MS Dhoni’s power hitting was turning point, says Alastair Cook
Wednesday, January 16th, 2013 1:14:15 by Rana Nasir Ghafoor
England captain Alastair Cook has said that it was Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s power hitting in the death overs that actually made the difference in the second One Day International (ODI) on Tuesday.
Thanks to Dhoni’s blistering knock of 72 runs, India cruised to an easy 127- run victory at Kochi. Batting first, the Men in Blue failed to get off to a good start, as both openers lost their wickets within the first five overs.
Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh consolidated the innings, but conceded too many to get settled. Suresh Raina also played 78 ball during his 55-run innings. After all the hard work, the home side was desperately looking for a strong finish.
Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja rose to the occasion, and scored more than hundred runs in the last 10 overs. The wicket-keeper batsmen used only 66 balls to score 72 runs. Jadeja batted even better, and clattered 61 runs off 37 balls. Consequently, the side piled
up 285 runs in the allotted 50 overs.
In reply, the Poms suffered a massive collapse, and the whole side went back to the pavilion only in 36 overs. It was a massive loss for the tourists and, talking about the turning point, Cook gave full credit to the opposing skipper for making the difference.
"It’s too many, last ten overs saw them score almost 110 runs which does hurt. It’s very tough when you’ve got people like Dhoni at the end. You get exposed when you don’t quite get the skills right. He (Dhoni) is probably the best player in the world in
those situations, in these conditions,"" Cook told reporters.
"You’re always going to get a hindsight, but probably one batsman you don’t want an offspinner bowling to is Dhoni. We’ve seen him a number of times and with a spinner at the end, it’s very hard to bowl to him. So, look, clearly when you get hit for 68
runs in the last five overs, you think, maybe now, you could have done things differently. But at the time, for me, it was a very big gamble to make," he added.
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Posted by Rana Nasir Ghafoor
on Jan 16 2013. Filed under Sports.
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