MS Dhoni: 5 finals! 5 masterstrokes! 5 victories! One man!

#1 World T20 final 2007- India vs Pakistan

Giving the last over to Joginder Sharma

The arch-rivals India and Pakistan were facing each other in the inaugural T20 World Cup. This tournament revolutionized the game of cricket. T20 format commenced amidst a lot of hearsays and exhilaration. The fans didn’t know much about the format. Both India and Pakistan were pretty much in a similar condition. Both the teams didn’t have their star players. Both the teams had a young team along with young and calm captains. Nevertheless, this didn’t affect the performance of the teams as both India and Pakistan performed exceptionally well and went into the final.

India won the toss and elected to bat. Debutant Yusuf Pathan started the match in style by smashing two boundaries in the first over. Though it was a short stay for Yusuf as Mohammed Asif sent him back to the pavilion in the 3rd over, India soon lost the wicket of Robin Uthappa as well. Yuvraj Singh built a 63 runs’ partnership with Gautam Gambhir who held down from one end. Soon Yuvraj was dismissed. Dhoni also flopped with the bat. But all thanks to Gautam Gambhir’s knock of 75 runs 54 balls and Rohit Sharma’s cameo of 30 runs in 16 balls, India set a respectable target of 158 runs in 20 overs.

Chasing 158, Pakistan had a poor start to their innings, losing Mohammad Hafeez for 1 run in the first over. Pakistan had lost 6 of their batsmen for 77 runs by the 12th over, staring at a sure-shot defeat. But Misbah-Ul-Haq was not ready to give up. Misbah smacked 3 sixes in one over. The equation boiled down to 13 off 6 balls with Pakistan’s last wicket pair of Misbah and Asif at the crease. Dhoni gambled by giving the last over to Joginder Sharma. This decision initially made no sense. Misbah carted Jogi for a six and brought down the equation to 6 runs in 4 balls. Dhoni’s gamble now looked like a foolish decision from an inexperienced captain. But then another gamble was made. This time from Misbah! Misbah scooped the next delivery which proved to be fatal for his side. He top-edged it to Sreesanth who was standing at fine leg. India won the match! The young Indian brigade had done it! And winning the finals against Pakistan was an icing on the cake.

Just a couple of matches earlier India were on the brink of elimination. But an inspired team effort and self-assurance ensured the silverware to the mercurial, yet consistent Indian Cricket Team. And looking at the gumption of this young brigade, this victory seemed the only possible result they were going to settle for. This was the first feather in Dhoni’s elusive cap. Little did we knew at that time that this flamboyant youngster from Ranchi is going to become one of the best captains to ever play the sport.