In pursuit of 218, when India were 61-4, not many had hopes from the team. Rohit Sharma stood as a rock at one end and was looking extremely elegant with his drives and punches against a charged up Sri Lankan outfit. However, losing partners frequently at the other end to nothing shots was a nightmare for the Mumbai batsman as India were left in a complete disarray.
When MS Dhoni walked in though, the situation completely changed as just the presence of the veteran of 299 ODI’s brought about a sense of positivity in the middle for India. From there on, it was the matter of Dhoni getting his eye in before India got past the line.
While Dhoni was happy to hold up one end and milk the singles, Sharma did the bulk of the scoring with his flamboyant shots throughout the carpet. En route their stand, Rohit brought up the 12th ton of his ODI career and ensured that India eventually got home.
Post the game, when quizzed about what his conversations with Dhoni were about during the partnership, the Indian vice captain spoke about their motive of building a steady partnership.
“Obviously it is not a good feeling when you see wickets falling at the other end,” Sharma said. “But we always knew that one big partnership was required at that point. We saw it even in the last game that one big partnership and we won the game. That was the talk and that was the idea to try and create a partnership and yes MS Dhoni has been such an experienced player in that situation,” he said.
”He has batted in that situation so many times and bailed the team out. So all we were trying to do was take it over by over and just take the game until the end. We knew that if we bat till the 45th or 46th over, we would win the game. That was the idea and that was the talk in the middle,” Rohit added.