How a challenge by former coach Greg Chappell turned MS Dhoni into a great finisher
Mahendra Singh Dhoni burst into worldwide cricket in 2004 as a flamboyant, hard-hitting batsman, a far cry from the picture of the calm and composed finisher he has constructed over a decade and a half later.
Former India coach Greg Chappell on Wednesday (May 13) stated that former India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was “the most powerful batsman” he had seen and revealed about how he had as soon as gave a problem to Dhoni that turned him into a fantastic finisher with the bat.
Chappell, whereas talking on a web based chat with the PlayWrite Foundation, recalled Dhoni’s match-winning innings of 183 towards Sri Lanka in 2005 after which revealed a few dialog he had with the previous India captain at the moment.
“I remember having a conversation with him. We had a home series against Sri Lanka,” Chappell stated. “Dhoni obtained a 180 in a single recreation. He completely took them aside. He hit a whole lot of boundaries and he hit a whole lot of sixes.
“The next game was in Pune, and I remember having a conversation with him about his overall ability and I felt that if he just went through his career trying to hit boundaries and sixes, he may not achieve what he should achieve in cricket,” Chappell stated.
“Now we talked about the fact that if he could learn to hit the ball along the ground as well…even though he was good at hitting boundaries, it was still a high-risk way of playing. If he could take some of that risk out of it, he could become one of the best finishers in world cricket,” he added.
“I remember that game in Pune, we didn’t have many to chase and when he came in, we had 80 or 100 runs to get,” the previous India coach stated.
“So, I threw him a challenge to see if he could get all of his runs along the ground. I said ‘We should win, but I want you to go out there and make sure we win it’,” Chappell stated.
“You’re not allowed to hit the ball in the air until we’ve won the game,” he stated. “Somehow, you have to discover the joys in being the most effective finisher relatively than top-of-the-line hitters of boundaries and perhaps be remembered for some thrilling innings, since you might turn out to be the most effective finisher the sport has ever seen.
“Luckily, he took the challenge, although I remember RP Singh was the 12th man, and mid-way through his innings, he came to me and said MS wants to know if he can hit the ball in the air now,” Chappell recalled.
“We still needed about 20 runs to win, so I said to RP ‘you go back and tell him, he can hit the ball in the air when we have won the game’.”
Dhoni remained affected person however caught to his type and ended the sport off with a six.
“We got towards the end of the game and we needed four to win, and he hit the biggest six straight down the ground and he ran off waving his bat in the air and he ran past me and asked ‘is that alright coach?'”
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