Alastair Cook says MS Dhoni’s big hitting at death was the difference – Cricket News Update
England skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/AN-Cook-c1026 believes Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s blitz at the death overs made all the difference in the second One Day International of the five-match series between India and England, here at the Nehru Stadium, Kochi on Tuesday, January 15,
2013. India won that match by a huge margin of 127 runs.
The home skipper smashed seven muscular boundaries and two lofty sixes during his 66 ball 72 to steer India to a formidable total of 285 for 6 from their stipulated 50 overs. Dhoni was well supported by spin-bowling all-rounder http://www.senore.com/Cricket/RA-Jadeja-c2238, who played
a blistering knock of 61 runs from just 37 balls, plundering eight fours and two sixes.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013 with a 44-ball
42. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Samit-Patel-c2426 (30 not out) were the other two notable performers from the visiting line-up, while rest of the batsmen fell for scored inside 17.
After the match, Cook was all praise for his Indian counterpart and rued his lower-order’s capitulation.
"He [Dhoni] is probably the best player in the world in those situations, in these conditions," said Cook at the post-match presentation ceremony. "He does it time and time again. He's incredibly hard to bowl at and with that extra man in the circle, it's
very, very hard to stop on these flat wickets."
The visiting skipper also justified his decision to toss the ball to the pace trio of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/JC-Tredwell-c1676 conceding just nine runs in his two overs (42nd
and 44th), and occasional spinner Joe Root giving away just five runs in his spell of two overs.
"You're always going to have hindsight, but probably one batsman you don't want an off-spinner bowling to is Dhoni," Cook said. "We've seen him a number of times and with a spinner at the end, it's very hard to bowl to him. So, look, clearly when you get
hit for 68 runs in the last five overs, you think, maybe you could have done things differently. But at the time, for me, it was a very big gamble to make."
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