Shikhar Dhawan knew that his team would end up losing the game against Rising Pune Supergiant had Mahendra Singh Dhoni stayed till the end. To his utter disappointment, his premonition came true as the former India skipper roared back to form with a stunning 34-ball 61* run knock to master a thrilling run-chase to give his team its second consecutive win.
Chasing 176, the Supergiant needed 11 runs off six deliveries, and two off the final delivery bowled by pace bowler Siddarth Kaul and Dhoni finished the proceedings in style by smashing a four to the to the extra cover fence.
Dhawan praised his India teammate for the match-winning knock but rued the missed chances which he thinks cost his team the match. Bipul Sharma had dropped Rahul Tripathi when he was batting on 17 and the opening batsman fully capitalised on the reprieve as he went on to score 59 runs off 41 deliveries. Dhoni also got a reprieve in the 18th over when Bhuvneshwar Kumar spilt a tough chance before Rashid Khan dropped a catch on the first ball of the final over which went for a four.
“Obviously, Dhoni bhai is an experienced player and he has been finishing games like these over the years. So we knew, if he stayed, it would happen. And I think the couple of catches that we dropped proved costly for us. We missed one right at the start then we dropped Dhoni bhai which cost us the game. But still, I feel our bowlers bowled really well,” Dhawan said at the post-match conference.
Dhawan also admitted that his team could not score at a brisk rate in the early stages of the innings before saying that it made up for it towards the end. The defending champions managed just 65 runs in the first ten overs but Kane Williamson (21 off 14), Moises Henriques (55 off 28) and Deepak Hooda played quickfire knocks in the second-half of the innings to help their team score 111 runs in the final 10 overs and post a good total.
“The score that we had in the first 10-12 overs, I thought we were 10-15 runs short but the way we covered up towards the later part of the innings, it was very good. It was a good score,” Dhawan said.
Speaking about the thrilling match, the southpaw said:
“Yes, the excitement is always there and the heart also beats fast because of the close games. But you know, when Dhoni bhai was standing there, he can pull the match out because he has done it on so many occasions. So, you subconsciously believe that he would do it,”