Behind the Click: A sprint that broke the dreams of a nation

MS Dhoni's sprint against Bangladesh in T20 WC 2016

MS Dhoni has often been in discussion for the presence of mind he displayed on field during his playing days. The image above is one of the many examples where MS Dhoni read the match situation perfectly and did not lose his composure under pressure. 

Backdrop

India was playing Bangladesh in the Super 10 stage of the T20 World Cup 2016. Mashrafe Mortaza won the toss in the match and invited India to bat first. The Bangladesh bowlers did a great job to restrict the Indians to 146 runs for the loss of 7 wickets in their 20 overs. 

Suresh Raina (30 off 23) was the highest scorer for India on a pitch where the conditions were not exactly favourable for the batters. 

On a slowish and sticky wicket Bangladesh started decently but began to lose the way in the middle stages. While Mahmudullah held one end, Mashrafe Mortaza took a bold decision of sending Mushfiqur Rahim lower down the order than his original batting order. 

A celebration too early

Moment before disaster (PC: Twitter)

At the end of the 18th over, Bangladesh needed 17 runs off 12 balls with 4 wickets in hand. At this stage Jasprit Bumrah showed his brilliance. He bowled the 19th over under huge pressure and gave away just 6 runs in it. 

This brought India back into the match and the equation for the final over was 11 runs off 6 balls. MS Dhoni entrusted Hardik Pandya with the final over. 

Mahmudullah took a single off the first delivery of the over and the strike was now with Mushfiqur. In the next two balls, the batter slammed two boundaries one through extra cover and other through fine leg by a scoop. This brought down the equation to 2 runs off three balls and the match was completely in Bangladesh’s favour. 

After his second boundary Mushfiqur was sure of the victory and threw his fists in the air in front of Hardik. But what happened in the next three deliveries was an amazing turn of events to say the least.

MSD does a ‘Bolt’

India after the thrilling victory (PC: Twitter)

On the fourth ball of the over Rahim slogged a good length delivery and was caught at deep mid-wicket by Shikhar Dhawan. In the next delivery Mahmudullah was held at the same position, but this time by ‘Sir’ Jadeja. 

So, now this meant the equation came down to 2 runs off 1 ball. A single meant the match would end in a tie and roll on to the super over. 

Hardik Pandya ran up and bowled a short and wide delivery, beating the outside edge of Shuvagata Hom, the striker. Mustafizur Rahman was already backing up and ran for his life to the other end. 

But the man behind the stumps, MS Dhoni collected the ball and ran towards the stumps instead of throwing. He took off the bails and the only question in the minds of 1.4 billion people was, whether MSD was quick enough? 

The third umpire confirmed that MSD was faster than the batter and it was a wicket. It was a scintillating win for India by just one run. 

This loss meant that Bangladesh were eliminated from the tournament. The possibilities of making it to the business end of the tournament for the team was finished and with that their dreams were shattered. 

Whatever happened just spoke about the multiple qualities of MSD. His fitness, self-confidence, match awareness and composure everything was reflected in the run that he made. This stunt and the enthralling finish will be etched in the memories of India cricket fans for a long time. 

Also Read: What if…. Rohit Sharma was not promoted to opening by MS Dhoni?