'Captain cool' MS Dhoni is the best finisher in ODIs

The fifth CB Series ODI between India and Sri Lanka dramatically ended in a tie at the Adelaide Oval on Tuesday, a first of sorts between the subcontinent rivals in ODIs. Dhoni stealed the show with a captain’s knock as he all but sealed the game for India with two points. He has the uncanny knack of picking gaps and stealing runs apart from launching a calculated assault on the bowlers in the closing stages of the game.

This brings back vivid memories of erstwhile Australian ODI finisher, Michael Bevan who bats deep down the order and see-off the match proceedings in his team’s favor. Both of them have 50+ averages and great finishers who can tonk the ball to all over the park with aplomb and run at an incredible speed.  Its difficult to set a field for Dhoni and he uses his wrists admirably and indulge with some power hitting on both sides of the wicket. Dhoni’s last ball hit off Malinga ball pitching wide outside the off-stump and the batsman lunged forward and heaved high over the covers. 

Captain cool Dhoni builds his innings patiently and pace his innings nicely till the finish never losing sight of the target. Being the skipper he has to own responsibility and he knows well that his critics will come hard on him if he throws his wicket away. In the last match against Australia India managed to win in the 50th over with another heroic effort by Dhoni finishing off in his inimical style.

Gambhir had blamed Dhoni for the delay that India should have finished it off somewhere around the 48th over. Dhoni took Gambhir's straight forward comments in the right spirit. He said “So I am never in a hurry to finish it in the 48th over or 47th over. Even if it goes to the 49th or 50th over, I am quite happy. [Since I bat down deep] I don't have the luxury of batsmen behind me. If I go in to bat, I like to finish the job. It's different with different people. Some people like to finish the game early, take a bit more risk in the middle and finish off the game, but I have a different perspective about it. "It's a very individual thing. There's nothing wrong. If you ask Viru pa [Sehwag], he would have said 'why not 25 overs?'"