Five reasons why India won the ICC Champions Trophy final
Five reasons why India won the CT final
1. Dhoni’s captaincy
Dhoni's plans, if he ever has one, obliquely resemble those of Jack Sparrow's(from the Pirates of the Caribbean series). At first it looks like pure chaos, but once the dust settles, the opposition is on their knees, wondering if he had planned it all out in advance or if he made it up as the game unfolded. Either way, Dhoni’s decisions as the Captain have been spot-on. Even though he was sent walking back to the dug-out 4 deliveries into his batting, without any runs to claim as his, he was instrumental in the team’s victory.
2. Dhawan-Kohli partnership
After Rohit Sharma was sent packing with hardly any runs on the board, the job of setting a defendable score fell onto the hands of Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli. Had the duo taken too long to get going or had they been too aggressive, the outcome of the match would’ve been very different. They were able to set the perfect pace, pushing the English side to the ends of its wits trying to outthink the Indian batsmen. Even after Dhawan’s wicket fell, Kohli looked invincible—giving the opposition little reason to celebrate the fall of wickets that followed. Kohli ensured that even when Karthik, Raina and Dhoni’s wickets fell like dominos, the runs kept mounting up against the English opposition.
3. Ishant and Jadeja’s explosive overs
Bringing in Ishant Sharma to bowl the 18th over may not sound like a good idea. In fact three deliveries into the over, every person watching the match was certain his over has handed England the match. But a dot ball, a six and two wides later, Ishant Sharma took two wickets to make the prospect of an English victory a distant dream. The over that followed turned the distant dream into a terrifying nightmare. Ravindra Jadeja quickly sent Buttler and Bresnan back to the pavillion with little runs to their name.
4. Ian Bell’s wicket
When Ian Bell miscalculated Jadeja’s delivery and swung and missed, Dhoni was quick to dislodge the bails. A review of the footage shows a decision on the matter cannot be more difficult. After the third umpire reviewed and re-reviewed the footage and the data available countless times, a decision was announced—OUT. There never was a more debatable decision but at the end of the day, it went in the favour of India and perhaps, Bell’s wicket had a role to play in India’s victory.
5. Bresnan’s overthrow
While it may seem infantile to fixate on a single mistake Bresnan made, but it was a big mistake nonetheless. And that mistake gifted India 4 runs and England lost by 5. The overthrow Bresnan did was not an attempt at a wicket. He was not trying to reduce the running between the wickets either. Frankly, it is not clear why he did not pause to look where he threw the ball. But he threw the ball well over Buttler and it bounced off into the boundary line. Going into the last over of England’s batting, if the target was two runs, instead of six, from one ball, England could have managed to match India’s score if not run for two.
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