Dhoni, captain cool — the placard held by an Indian fan appropriately sums up the magic of India’s captain.
“I don’t turn up in the ground to achieve anything special as a captain,” Dhoni said after his team defended a modest 129 to win the Champions Trophy.These modest words may seem out of place for India’s most successful cricket captain in all formats of the game — Tests, ODIs and T20s. “For me winning the game is very important and that is of utmost importance for us as a team,” Dhoni said.The British media also doffed their hats at the “pragmatic, ineffably calm captain” and highlighted his leadership qualities which ultimately gave India a thrilling victory.
“India could hardly believe what was happening, though for MS Dhoni, their pragmatic, ineffably calm captain it was probably a normal day at the office. He had put the squeeze on England at the start and he has been round long enough to know that anything can happen in short-form cricket and often does,” the Independent said.
The Daily Telegraph described Dhoni’s decision to bowl the last two overs with spinners as a “masterstroke”.“... Completely confounding tradition, the last two overs were entrusted by MS Dhoni to spinners. Spin has been one of the surprising successes of the shortest form of the game, and Dhoni’s choice was a master stroke,” the paper wrote.The Daily Mirror was also effusive in its praise of the Indian captain. “India played much the smarter cricket and were brilliantly led by MS Dhoni who marshalled his field and his bowlers like an all-knowing general who just needed the merest crack to break England down,” it said.
The Guardian wrote: “The India captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, started to turn the screw, hounding the batsmen with close fielders, the ball spitting and the crowd ecstatic.”