The Indian captain, MS Dhoni, showed tremendous composure in the final of the recently played tri-series in West Indies and guided his team to another title.
India was playing against Sri Lanka in that final and they had to chase down a modest target of 202 runs to become the champions. The men in blue started well and at 139 for 3, they were cruising, but, all of a sudden, the wickets started falling down in quick succession and the score became 167 for 8.
It was not an easy track to bat on. The ball was talking a lot and to score 35 more runs on that pitch with just a couple of wickets in hand was looking impossible at that point of time.
But, Dhoni didn’t let the panic set in. He tried to keep himself on strike as much as possible and started moving towards the target slowly but steadily.
India got into further trouble when Vinay Kumar was dismissed in the form of 9th wicket. 20 more runs were needed and the last man Ishant Sharma was out there to face the Sri Lankan quickies who were on song.
It was Sri Lanka which was on the driving seat, but, because of the presence of MS Dhoni in the middle, India hadn’t lost hopes either.
The skipper lived up to the expectations. He asked Ishant Sharma just to stand there with him. In order to keep his wicket intact, Ishant wasted some deliveries which brought the equation down to 15 in 1 over.
It was looking a tall order, but, MS Dhoni did it in style. He missed the first ball of the last over, but, after that, he went berserk. The next ball went sailing over the long off boundary for six.
The third ball was again a length one and Dhoni went hard at it. He got a thick outside edge and the ball crossed the point boundary for four.
The bowler had got completely nervous at this stage. He ran in and bowled length ball again and Dhoni was not going to miss out on that. He sent the ball over the fence again with a booming extra cover drive and the match was over.