“Me playing or not playing, the team is not too bothered about it, it doesn’t have a big impact on the team.”
MS Dhoni
You have to admire the humble nature of the man.
If I was Dhoni my statement would be, “Sehwag, Sachin and VVS are rubbish without me, India you better bow the fuck down everytime you see me”.
Unlike my statement, Dhoni’s is rubbish.
India are flaccid without him.
Lost to Sri Lanka when he was ‘resting’.
Couldn’t beat Australia when he didn’t captain.
And now have drawn against New Zealand after smashing them the game before.
He is more than one man, he is the winning mojo.
Look at yesterday’s cricket, or any available scorecard.
He came in at 5 for 180, and made a 50, got the momentum back, and put India into a handy poisiton.
It’s not a great position, but without him it it would be alot uglier.
The kiwis should be happy that this looks like it might be a result test.
Although with Dhoni around, perhaps not the result they wanted.
Some captains just bring lady luck with them
He has truckload of mojo. he is MJ of cricket. Tiger woods of cricket. yes sometime he looks stupid with his field moves , so is tiger woods when he shanks and even putt 6 ft past hole.
The thing about Dhoni is as Hayden said last year, there is an aura around him. He makes anything possible. Knows what to say. Dada used to boss indian cricket, dhoni in same position to wield tremendous power. But ganguly has all bengalis without exception rooting for him. Ganguly is pride of bengal but i hate that mother fucker with all my heart simply because he quit on indian team when he saw greenish nagpur pitch against aussies. Ganguly plays when odds favour him. What a douchebag.
India had GOD before , even india had better batting team without yuvraj the blackhole in the middle of greatest batting line up. India never threaten to win any game , they only threaten to draw every game at max.
With dhoni things changed. India going for win and he has presence of mind like no other captains. I don’t know about his batting skills and wicket keeping skills. It is just average.
But he delivers when india wants most time. That is mojo doing the work!.
he could be right..
it may not have a big impact on the team, just on the results!
If he really had any impact, he would be in your 5 most important cricketers
NZ is already 138/7 at tea with 1over left…dhoni magic in full flow.
India has not lost a single Test where he was captain. He somehow makes the team play a level higher and the opposition team a level lower. How he does it, I do not know. I do have an idea based on an incident I was lucky to witness along with thousands of fans during the IPL finals.
The Chennai team had lost a hard fought final. The players must have felt gutted. Our man calls them all in a huddle and gives a rousing speech thanking them and congratulating them for reaching the finals. After the huddle, the players had big smiles on their faces and were generally pumped up. Even the seniors like Ntini and Murali who have played more than Dhoni seemed to have been influenced by Dhoni’s talk. Players love to play under such a leader who does not take defeat personally and gives them respect. Cricket needs more captains like him.
I have a theory. The guy’s sweat glands ooze a form of gas that is a mix of crystal method, heroin, and a particularly potent aerosol-based steroid. There simply can’t be any other explanation.
He does the job he is supposed to most of the time. Bats well prizing his wicket and will catch most coming his way. His significant contribution today were the six catches he took considering how Karthik was clanging his way through the last match.
On a totally unrelated note a video on the Afghan cricket team from the world cup qualifier- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zz-UoefV98.
What makes the video is not that it is probably taken on someone’s mobile phone with exotic afghan music but you get a glimpse of the Dwayne “FLubber” Leverock in action (probably the last time on tape as Bermuda are clearly not making the world cup this time)
Afghans look good (as probably lot of them have pak connection) with thier big hitting captain, a good looking quick and what looks like a leggie
It is the truth, in the absence of Dhoni, the team looks nervous, and ugly
yeah no impact. a match saving 50, six catches, and a bunch of imponderables. he’s got the x-factor.