New Delhi: A buzz was expected as this was the last time MS Dhoni would be seen as the captain of an Indian side, but what transpired in the Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai was nothing short of exceptional.
One had seen fans running out in the ground to touch Sachin Tendulkar’s feet, on Tuesday another fan ran out in the middle of the pitch but not for Tendulkar. It was for Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
The occasion was a practice match between India ‘A’ and England and the Brabourne Stadium was filled to its every corner, there was only one expectation—to watch Dhoni play as captain for one last time.
And the man did not disappoint. Dhoni smashed an unbeaten 68 off just 40 balls with 8 hits to the fence and 2 over it as India A posted a competitive 304/4 in their allotted 50 overs.
Surprisingly, there were not one but two incidents during the day when one could confuse Dhoni with Tendulkar. If one had started to feel dizzy with the repeated “Dhoni… Dhoni,” chants even before he had turned out to bat then he was in for a massive surprise when he eventually did.
Dhoni took roughly about 30 seconds to make his way into the middle and during that time the defining noise summed up his achievements as a captain for India. No statistics, no graphs were required.