Keeping calm in the tri-series final against Sri Lanka – Afresh after winning the Champions Trophy 2013, Indian team landed in the West Indies to play a tri-series against the hosts and Sri Lanka. The Indian team had a poor start losing first two games but somehow qualified for the finals. In between, Dhoni missed three games due to an injury and Virat Kohli-led the team. It was in the final of the tournament when Dhoni came back as captain and showed why he is regarded as the best captain in the world.
Indian team needed 19 runs to win off in the final three overs of the game but had only one wicket in hand. It was Lasith Malinga with the ball to bowl the 48th over and thankfully he was in his last over. Dhoni took no risk in his over and scored only two runs off that. The number of the balls went down to 12 and score went up by just two runs. Ishant Sharma was on strike and had a task to survive. Ishant then survived the 49th over, giving India a foggy chance to win the game.
The equation was clear, six balls and 15 runs. The first ball was a miss and it was after then when Indian skipper did what he is best known for. On the second delivery of the game, he sent Shaminda Eranga over the boundary for a six, collecting four on the next ball and a six on the fourth delivery was enough to finish the game.
It was a tactic from former Indian captain not to go against Malinga in the 48th over as the fast bowler is a yorker specialist and it could have been a utter non-sense to go against him. Dhoni was unlucky not to get a single in 49th over or we could have seen Dhoni finishing the game in the penultimate over itself as bowlers like Angelo Mathews and Shaminda Eranga are somewhat easy to play compared to Malinga.
Dhoni, in the end, admitted that he planned to go against other two bowlers as Malinga was a tough bowler to hit. His wise decision handed Indian team to win the tri-series cup and once again Dhoni showed that why he is the Skipper of the Indian team.