MS Dhoni: A lot of people wait with open swords and want you to make mistakes

MS Dhoni: A lot of people wait with open swords and want you to make mistakes: India, on the back of a fine batting performance by skipper Ms Dhoni won the 2nd ODI in an exciting contest between both the team.

India were 124 for 6 at one point and an out of form Dhoni was in the middle. He hit a fighting 92 and remained unbeaten at the end of the innings. Rahane also scored a half century earlier in the innings. India reaches 247/9 after useful contributions from the tail end batsmen.

The Indian bowlers had to raise their games in order defend the modest target of 248 runs set in front of South Africa. Bowlers lived up to the expectations and delivered impressive performances to restrict South Africa from reaching the target by 22 runs.

The series is now level 1-1.

Axar Patel (3/39) and Harbhajan (2/51) were the best performers among bowlers. The seamers also did well. Especially, Mohit Sharma (1/21) who did not allow the batsmen to score freely and restricted them from flourishing. Bhuvneshwar Kumar (3/41) came back in the final overs and wiped out the tail enders who had become a concern for India when the match was nearing its end.

Harbhajan Singh in the post-match interview with Sanjay Manjrekar said: “Dhoni was fantastic with his captaincy. The wicket was nice to bat on and the ball was turning only when you bowled it slower. Here and there a few sixes went but we kept the pressure on and Axar took two crucial wickets. We felt we were 30 runs short and Dhoni said in the huddle that if we kept the energy up and saved 25-odd runs we could do it.”

Here is what both the captains had to say after the conclusion of the match:

The losing captain AB de Villiers said: “They pulled it off across the line, credit to India. The target was manageable and a poor batting performance from us. We couldn’t extend it after the opening partnership and we have the experience. You have to stay positive no matter what total you are chasing, we couldn’t execute well. Very good performance from out bowlers would have loved to chase something like 200. Nothing too serious about my back, just pulled my lower back a bit and should be fit for the next match.”

A relatively delighted MS Dhoni who was also the Man of the Match, said: Not an easy game played, a lot of people wait with open swords and want you to make mistakes. We should have got more with the bats and we didn’t start well with our bowling but our spinners did well and pacers also came into action later on. Overall not a very convincing win but good win, we can play a lot better. We’re not playing to our capacity, not even 80%, in batting or bowling. As a complete batting unit we didn’t perform well but we bounced back well.

“We knew we needed two good deliveries when Tahir and Rabada were batting. I won’t say the game was in our hands but we had a good chance if we bowled in the right areas and needed only two good deliveries. It doesn’t always go your way (talking about his batting), the top order has been scoring loads of runs in the last 2-2.5 years so lower order doesn’t get a big chance to bat.

“Apart from Suresh there’s nobody who loves to do that kind of a job when you go out and you just have to go for the big hits. The pace was very important on this wicket and the length too. Axar is not a big turner of the ball and he pitched it in the right areas. Bhajji has the experience and they didn’t try too many different things and flighting or under-flighting the ball was needed and overall they did a good job.”