Dhoni’s captaincy

Tactically, Rahul Dravid has been the best Indian captain that I’ve seen. Largely, he was attacking and positive with his field placements and bowling changes; something that’s not been a defining characteristic of recent Indian captains. With Kumble during the India-Australia Test series, it was a bit of a throwback to the dark days of numbing negativity (of course, Kumble was outstanding in the way he got his team to bounce back in Perth after the pain of Sydney and no amount of praise can be too high for the kind of steel he showed while trying to bat out those last few overs; however, here I am referring only to on-field tactics and strategy). Which is why it’s terrific to see that Dhoni fits into the attacking mould. His captaincy today, during the ODI at the MCG, was well-nigh perfect.

Ishant Sharma, of course, bowled magnificently. He’s maintaining that astonishing improvement curve in every game. The Star Cricket commentators were gushing over the decision to hand the new ball to him. However, Dhoni deserves credit also for the decision to keep Ishant on after Hayden went after him in his second over and hit him for 18. At the time, it was a courageous decision especially with Ishant having just bowled two no-balls (for two free hits) and looking like he was on the brink of losing his run-up completely with Hayden coming hard at him. Dhoni kept him on, Hayden edged a wide one, Ishant got his act together again and got Ponting soon after with a beauty. Later, with Australia 3 down and Ishant red-hot, Symonds and Clarke were trying to rebuild the innings. Symonds was under pressure but was getting off-strike by gliding the ball down to third man. Dhoni brings in a gully, denies Symonds that single, Ishant gets him edging behind the wicket next ball.

In general, most of Dhoni’s gambles paid off today. Front line pacers were kept on in the quest for more wickets when Australia were under pressure with the field in and plenty of slips. It worked beautifully as wickets kept falling at regular intervals and Australia were bowled out in the 44th over. The perfectly planned and executed Haddin stumping off Harbhajan capped it off.

Over the years, the Aussies have had the best captains (Taylor, Border, Chappell). Now, with Dhoni captaining India (and I daresay Ponting captaining Australia!) the boot’s on the other foot.

Update: Sehwag’s edged Bracken through a vacant second slip in the 2nd over and Tendulkar’s just edged Lee through the vacant third slip region in the 3rd over. With India chasing 160 to win.