There is something of Merlin the magician to Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Stretching the legend further, Dhoni is probably Merlin and King Arthur rolled into one for the Team India skipper is no adviser as he is the definitive decision maker.
Like the decision he took to give Ishant Sharma, India’s most expensive bowler, a fourth over while the more economical ones manned the outfield. How do you explain the illogical over except to say that England imploded at the sight of the quick but juicy offerings of the tall pacer?
Dhoni keeps weaving these myths into modern cricket’s great magic show, waving his wand as it were at crucial junctures to keep increasing the silverware in the BCCI cupboard. Not even Ricky Ponting who won two world Cups and two Champions Trophy competitions for Australia could get them up to winning the quixotic T20 format. Now Dhoni is the only captain to have won all three cups in the shorter formats even if we have to count this CT final as a virtual T20 game rather than an ODI.
In one projection, Dhoni was spot on. Even magicians must have prayers for God but Dhoni said forget the Great Umpire in the sky on a rainy day and concentrate on winning anyhow rather than expect help from above. Of course, the logic was spot on because this was an ODI and even if one ball was washed out there would be no result provided the defending or chasing team had not won the game before the last ball. As it transpired, all 40 overs were bowled and the result was hanging till the last ball, which Treadwell could have hit for six a la Miandad, if he had the capability that is.
The final was the only game in which the result was not spotted in an India match till the very last delivery. The eminently watchable team who are the biggest draw in world cricket now had won all games, including the warm-ups, with the felicity of a Frankel gallop on English turf. Even they needed all the luck to win this one. But then the team was so good as to have overcome the disadvantage of having to bat first on a wet day when the premium should in theory have been with the English pace bowlers. Adding to the pressures was the fact that no CT final had been won setting the pace.
The trophy was England’s to take and they were well on course until that one over of madness in which neither Eoin Morgan nor Ravi Bopara had the intelligence to compute that eight was the score after one legal delivery and all they needed to do was consolidate in that over and the cup was theirs. While Morgan fell for a dummy of a routine slower ball, Bopara thought an above head height bouncer could be played at and he would still get a ‘No ball’, or at least he would be reprieved as in an above waist high full toss.
The pressures of a final does strange things even to a cricketer who was having a field day till then with the ball and was settled nicely to take his team to triumph with the bat. The failing is England’s and one with a history as well since that nation has never won an ODI cup in 38 years despite having been in three World Cup finals and once in CT too when they had all but sewn up the match only to have the West Indies tail enders to snatch it back. The latest instance of a failed chase adds to the World Cups of 1987 and 1992 when too they had a chance.
India’s balanced outfit did, however, have all the answers right through the event. The selectors must be complimented for picking a young team with fresh faces who should all be available for the defence of the World Cup in 2015, subject to form and fitness. It should surprise none if the Mahi touch of Merlin magic prevails there too notwithstanding the nature of the fast pitches and large stadiums of Australia and the seaming surfaces of New Zealand. Mahi magic is of the kind that seems capable of overcoming anything and everything. Maybe, they would even extend the life of the Champions Trophy so that Dhoni can have a dab at defending the title.