Former Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin recalled how MS Dhoni cleverly foresaw the shot Jonathan Trott would play in the Champions Trophy final in 2013 and also the means of getting him out.
At Edgbaston in Birmingham, India played England, the host nation, in a rain-affected final reduced to a 20-over affair. Not many gave the visitors much of a prayer, defending a score hardly worth 129, but Dhoni used Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Ishant Sharma perfectly, each taking two wickets to win on the last ball and add the only remaining ICC title to his cabinet.
“I still recall Mahi bhai coming to me and saying, ‘Don’t bowl over the stumps to Trott; bowl from around the wicket. He’ll try to play on the leg side, and if the ball spins, he’ll get stumped.’ I still can’t believe how he predicted that,” Ashwin told in a special episode in JioHotstar’s Unbeaten: Dhoni’s Dynamites.
Dinesh Karthik, a former Indian wicket-keeper, who is also a key part of that squad, recalled Dhoni having the elegance to take decisions under pressure.
“This was our time to show what cricket means to Team India. We were strong, we came back, and we had the mentality of never giving up. England cruised; they were almost there and could have really crossed the line easily. But Dhoni tactically made some brilliant moves, and the bowlers covered him up,” said Karthik.
Former India batter and commentator Akash Chopra said that this tournament proved Dhoni’s mettle as a leader. “This was his tournament through and through. It had Dhoni written all over it. He had almost sculptured this team to his own image and engineered victory after victory. What a story by the heavens,” he said.
The reason was that Dhoni asked Sharma to bowl again despite the fact that in his first spell, he was expensive with the new ball. Morgan was dismissed in the 17th over, followed by Bopara, which tilted the match back to India’s favor.
“That was the most magical thing Ishant has ever done. He bowled well; it worked for him and he got two wickets. This is when you know that Dhoni has got the Midas touch – everything he touches turns to gold.”
In an act that had never been witnessed before, Dhoni shockingly backed Ashwin to bowl the final six balls, at a time when spinners seldom finished innings or bowled at the death.
Chopra continued to explain why this move worked, “Chucking the ball to the spinner in the 20th over is a massive gamble. But Dhoni had faith in Ashwin – not only in his technical skills but his mindset and ability to handle pressure,” Chopra said.
