Mahendra Singh Dhoni - Great Gambler Of Cricket

Finally came a day when one of the greatest finishers in world could not finish the  game in his teams favor with his taking the game to the last ball and all the audience on their seats with heart in their mouth .Like all the memorable wins which he had given to India with his trademark approach, this lost will also be remembered ,as he rarely fails !!

Sunday September 7 2014, Edgbaston ,was the day which will be remembered by many ,especially by the Dhoni's critics who donot agree with Mahendra Singh Dhoni's gambling tactics in cricket .Like usual he took the game to the last ball for the powerful fireworks but eventually fell short of a hit ,which was the difference between the results which two teams got.The reason why people say gambling is bad because once you start getting results in your favor you become so much addicted to it that you almost forget the probability of losing and  start believing that no matter what you will get the result in your favor .

Cricket is all about challenging each other .Every ball by a bowler is a challenge to the batsmen and if batsmen decides to dominate the bowler and play on his own will than it’s the biggest challenge a bowler can ever get. Mahendra Singh Dhoni loves to challenge the bowlers each times he comes to bat and hence loves to test his powerful hitting each time he comes to bat. Yesterday Dhoni once again the man with strong will power has shown how much faith he had in himself and how much he enjoy the game and the challenges.

Even after losing the game at Edgbaston against England Dhoni took the blame and responded by saying that it was his responsibility to finish the game as he is better known for finishing the game .Well, he always takes this responsibility of finishing the game take any match which you can remember be it world cup final or countless IPl innings. It is really admirable that team India’s captain known his role both as a captain and as a player. He takes decisions for team , he keeps for team ,he finishes for team overall he took the whole responsibility of winning the game for India.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s tactics are so full proof that maximum time the only possible result team India could get is a win. His tactics are perfect for shorter formats like ODI and T20 and the heights which team India achieved under his captaincy need not to be recited all the times.Lets forget the loss and hope for many more wins. Long live the wins!!

   

Sometimes Winning Is Not Enough

Victories of all shades ranging from the diffident to the emphatic  ,interspersed by a shattering loss against Australia and than a tricky exit from the tournament ,that’s what defines the India’s journey in the ICC world Twenty 20 . And as usual in the process of doing postmortem of India’s defeat like a true Indian cricket team fan we came to some very logical conclusions like - Australia conspired to lose to put India and South Africa out , South Africa has spoiled the Indian party ,they should have lost it under 121(because we so hate it when other countries don't play according to India's needs).

In a format which equalizes both sides sometimes only winning is not enough . If we talk about this world T20 in particular where the four teams of semi finals are not decided until the last match is been played we should learn a important fact that the difference between almost winning and actually winning a match is that the former doesn’t count . So if we now accept the reality and analyze what actually went wrong than we will find India itself is responsible for their such unfortunate exit .Starting from the India Vs England match where both team have already qualified for the super eights and considering the fact that spin has always been a problem for Poms we should not have played with three spinners against Australia .Playing five bowlers is so unlikely Dhoni’s way ,that huge loss against Australia have actually made the India’s task tougher ,considering the group in which India is playing . How can you expect a team to win a match against team like Australia without playing with their regular opener , if Sehwag was injured or what ever may be the reason for not including him in the side than India should have a back up opener .Blaming  rain of just five minutes is not the way to justify your lose when you actually have not putted enough runs on the board .

Many are satisfied with the Indian performance because India have won the match which actually mattered i.e. the one against arch rival Pakistan . Winning in that match with eighteen balls left instead of the required nineteen to have a better run rate than Pakistan have only complicated the equation. The next match became must win for every team, and the situation was very much in Pakistan favor .History says that Pakistan plays exceptionally well when they are in a do or die situation ,than how can you expect them to flunk when the situation is so much in their strength zone .At least I was pretty assured that Pakistan was going to win that match .

With that Pakistan win ,South Africa had nothing to lose but India have many things to achieve .The things started getting wrong from the Toss itself , as Indian have to bat first they have to put a big total on the board and that extra pressure have left India short of fifteen to twenty runs and eventually India could only post a modest target of 153 which Dhoni is so good at defending .But India had to win it by 32 and since we had digged the  hole ourselves, we need to find a way to claw out of it .India started off brilliantly but since the result was not in our favor Dhoni’s decision to save his best bowlers and delaying Ashwin’s spell cost India the semi final berth .

India has been in such situation many times under Dhoni’s captaincy and nothing less than win is expected from our  team ,but as only two teams from a group can advance to the semi finals we have accept the truth  and to take positives from it and must admit that Indian bowlers, contrary to the expectations, did exceptionally well , but it’s the batting which let the team down.