Dhoni's captaincy : Making all the right moves

[Guest Hiten.]

Way too much hype about this captaincy stuff. If you have a good enough team you will end up winning consistently. Look at the likes of Jayawardene or Ponting right now. Weren't they chosen as the best skippers by the ICC just a short while ago? What is that they have changed now that they don't win enough? The media just likes winners and hypes them up way more than necessary. They have to sell you see. Dhoni isn't bad, he's quite good but to attribute wins to him is insane. When you have a team full of players that can bat and bowl obviously you will end up on the winning side. In fact in the last game Dhoni pretty much screwed up. He wasn't able to hit a ball from the middle of the bat during the Powerplay 3, ran Yousuf Pathan out (I thought Pathan was more capable of scoring quick runs than Dhoni) and then feathered a ball to the wicket keeper that should have been smacked for four. Despite all this he won, if he has issues with the last win he should be looking in the mirror. He pretty much stuffed the game up but fortunately for him the bowlers came to rescue as usual with the bat and the ball. Dhoni deserves accolades for the wins but there is too much hype surrounding his captaincy. In fact he's smart enough to know this and just a few days ago he mentioned a captain is only as good as his team.

That's exactly what I thought y'day during the game. It was pretty 'un-MSD' like decision to take PP 3 when Yusuf was relatively new to the crease. Moreover, Yusuf showed good signs by facing Mendis without any problems. MSD should have let Yusuf settle in for more 5 overs (i.e. 40-45) then they both could've unleashed themselves in the 45-50 overs period. PP 3 in 45-50 overs would have made more sense because batsmen have to throw their bats during this period. It would have been icing on the cake if field restriction were on when you have to throw your bat.

[Sachinism]

I don't think there was anything wrong in taking the PP then, it would have allowed them to increase the run rate and build momentum. Plus he may have been thinking its best to take it while they both are at the crease as they could do some damage (in case a wicket fell before they took it, then they would have had to allow time for the new batsman to settle in) Ideally we should have took it in the 34th over with the new ball

[King]

I don't think there was anything wrong in taking the PP then, it would have allowed them to increase the run rate and build momentum. Plus he may have been thinking its best to take it while they both are at the crease as they could do some damage (in case a wicket fell before they took it, then they would have had to allow time for the new batsman to settle in) Ideally we should have took it in the 34th over with the new ball

Sure thing but you don't take powerplay to push for singles though. That could have been done without having wasted the Powerplay. The likes of Zaheer and Praveen Sharma were able to put together 33 runs in 33 balls in the last few overs but Dhoni didn't show any intention of going after the bowling during the Power play 3. It's all good to be critical of the bowlers but he should also be looking at how he performed in the game. In fact to keep a team under 250 these days isn't such an easy task. He should be happy the bowlers bailed the team out.

[Sachinism]

^^ Yeh I agree, Dhoni seems to have lost his attacking instinct after becoming the anchor/finisher of the team

[Fontaine]

Dhoni already is one of the best ODI captains in Indian history. Let's not forget that before the CB series he insisted to the selectors to get the team he wanted, otherwise we'd be stuck with the fumblings of the BCCI selectors trying to put a team together.