Glad to score runs: Dhoni
First Published : 03 Apr 2011, 20:48
Last Modified : 02 Apr 2012, 12:19
Mumbai, April 2: It’s been a year since India scripted a dramatic run chase to win the ICC ODI World Cup final. MS Dhoni, who had been out of form for most of the tournament, came good in the all-important final with a sparkling 79-ball 91*. The Indian captain even scored the winning runs, with a trademark wallop over long-on off Nuwan Kulasekara for six. It was the perfect end to a memorable night of cricket.
We flash back to MS Dhoni’s comments on the famous win at the post-match presentation
On winning the World Cup
There were quite a few decisions I took in this match. Had we not ended up on the winning side, the first question would’ve been ‘Why Sreesanth and why not Ashwin’? The second one, ‘Yuvraj Singh was in form so why didn’t he bat up the order’? Having to answer those questions was pushing me to win this match. Jokes apart, I think in the last one month, we’ve done really well. We have spent some memorable days together on and off the field. This was the goal that we wanted to achieve and every individual gave his 100 percent to realise it.
On whether making his bat talk was a nice way to ask critics to shut up
It would be rude to say that in India. Honestly, my thinking was to give the youngsters a chance to bat up the order. I wanted be down the order to soak in the pressure but more often than not the pressure got the better of me. So in this game, chasing a big score and with two off-spinners in their ranks, I wanted to bat slightly up the order. Gary [Kirsten] and the senior players backed me for it. I had a point to prove, not to anyone else but myself. And I’m glad I got the number of runs that I did.
On what was going through his mind when India were 31 for two
It was tough. If you lost a couple of early wickets and the wickets are
those of [Virender] Sehwag and [Sachin] Tendulkar, people would obviously question whether we could get those runs. But I think Virat [Kohli] and Gautam [Gambhir] batted brilliantly. The need of the hour was to rotate the strike and negotiate the fast bowlers because if you gave them one wicket, there would be plenty of pressure on the lower order. Later on, with a bit of help from the dew on the field, we were
able to put pressure on their spinners.
On Gautam Gambhir’s knock
I would have loved to see him get that big World Cup final century but I think he’s the one to blame [for playing a poor shot]. Nevertheless, he batted brilliantly. His responsibility in the side is that of an anchor and I’m glad he took us so close to victory with his knock.
