Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni turned 42 on Friday and even at this age, three years after he declared his international retirement, Dhoni guided the Men in Yellow to their fifth Indian Premier League (IPL) title. He also became the first cricketer to have featured in 11 IPL finals. The former India captain is the only leader in gentlemen’s game history to have clinched all three ICC trophies including the ODI World Cup, the T20 World Cup and the Champions Trophy.
Fans witnessed one of the greatest moments of Dhoni’s career back in the 2011 World Cup India won. During the 2011 final, Dhoni took a shocking decision when he promoted himself up the order against Sri Lanka. Coming to support Gautam Gambhir in what was still a challenging chase after the fall of the third wicket with 160 runs still to get, Dhoni took some time in the middle and helped India by clinching the trophy in style, finishing the game with a huge six. The Indian team won the World Cup after a long wait of 28 years as the first time they did the magic during the 1983 World Cup under the leadership of great Kapil Dev.
“The best feeling was 15-20 minutes (before the winning moment). We didn’t need a lot of runs, the partnership was well-placed, there was a lot of dew. And the stadium started to sing Vande Mataram. That atmosphere I feel is very difficult to recreate – maybe in this [upcoming 2023] World Cup, there is a similar scenario, once the stadium is, the fans start contributing. You know, it’s a very difficult (atmosphere) one to replicate. But it can only be replicated if the occasion is similar to that (in 2011) and there are like 40, 50 or 60,000 people who are singing,” Dhoni stated in a conversation with former Australian batsman Mike Hussey in an ICC event.
Sri Lanka posted a total of 274 runs in the 50 overs and India were reeling at 114 for 3 when Dhoni came in to join Gautam Gambhir in the tense chase. Thala played an unbeaten knock of 91 runs and was first involved in a 109-run stand with Gambhir for the fourth wicket before adding an unbeaten fifth wicket partnership of 54 runs with Yuvraj Singh.
“To me, it was not the winning moment, it was 15-20 minutes ago when emotionally I was very high. And at the same time, I wanted to get done with it. We knew that we would win this from here, and it was very difficult for us to lose. So yes, you know it was more of a sense of satisfaction, job done, let’s move on from here,” said Dhoni.