Behti Hawa Sa Tha Wo... Udti Patang Sa Tha Wo... Kaha Gaya Usse Dhundo...

From a ticket collector to a test captain...  From being a hard hitter to a captain cool...  He has seen every bit of it...

Last walk back in test cricket for MSD

       The Dhoni Era of Test Cricket,  comes to a sudden end..  It was a decision no one expected,  to suddenly withdraw from Test Series,  when one match is still to go in the series.  But that's how he has taken all his decisions.  He always has stuck to his instincts.  If he wanted a leg slip then he will put it in there,  if he thought promoting himself up in the big world cup final just because they had 2 off spinners would help India,  then he went ahead of Yuvraj and everyone knows the result.  As usual it was a shocking news,  because he didn't show any signs on the field,  in the post match presentation or in the press conference...  That was typical Dhoni there,  calmly picking up the stump,  shaking hands with the opposition,  having chat with Warner with never ending smile on his face,  he praised all his teammates in the post match show,  he answered all the questions asked to him in his own calm way and just went away.


     He was carrying a finger injury at the start of this series,  he didn't play the first test,  that's where he must have decided this is the time to think over again,  with world cup coming up,  it's certainly difficult to play all three formats and being captain puts a lot more pressure. So he decided to concentrate on ODIs and the T20s. It's a wise decision because he is simply the best limited overs captain India ever had.

Climbing to no.1 in the test rankings

         He never played for numbers.  He always put the team's interest first.  For me the best test match innings of his would be the one at Lord's..  He wasn't the captain,  he batted with the tail to drew a test match,  remained not out on 75 odd runs..  How quickly he changed his style of batting,  from a flamboyant the hard hitter to a unconventional blocker... His double hundread against the Aussies in the heat of Chennai,  is one more inning that comes into my mind when I look back at his test career..

From a small town like Ranchi,  to achieve what he has achieved is an inspiration to many.  He will be looked upon as a role model by many youngsters and the children. He has been a great human being.  He has been criticized a lot by many people,  but it never affected his game.  He never showed the pressure in his expressions but his beard turning white was a clear sign of the pressure and the burden of Captaining a 120crore's  nation.

Ganugly's last test

He respected his seniors,  at the same time he wasn't afraid to talk to them freely when he was just a wicket keeper batsman.  He understood the game very well from behind the stumps,  and that's what prompted Sachin to suggest his name for captaincy. Dhoni was captain when Ganguly had announced his retirement. As a simple but still wonderful gesture,  he let Ganguly to lead the last moments of the test match,  by letting him place the fielders and chose the bowlers.

Kumble Retirement

 He,  with the help of seniors and some younger players built a champion test team,  which became
number one in test rankings for the first time! After the retirements of Ganguly, Laxman,  Dravid etc the performance of the test team overseas hasn't been upto the mark. Everyone criticizing MSD for the losses is I think not a right thing,  if the bowlers are unable to take 20 wickets in the test match then it's near to impossible to win a test match,  forget the series.  He lost 6 consecutive test serieses outside Asia,  n that must have been playing back of his mind.  His luck,  his charm was vanishing in test matches as a captain overseas. But that's the game for you.





He came to the test team because we needed a regular keeper who can bat well,  he came as storm,  taking on Shoaib Akhtar' scary bouncers and scoring 148 runs and announcing his arrival in test cricket....  Behti Hawa Sa Tha Wo.....
He achieved many feats as a captain,  batsman,  Weekes keeper....  Udti Patang Sa Tha Wo...
Now he has retired,  he will play the shorter formats but certainly test team will be saying,  Kaha Gaya Usse Dhundo...  They will miss his wicket keeping skills and lower order batting contributions...

It's not a right time to debate if he should have played the last test match or not.  Because generally his instinctive decisions have paid of on most of the occasions. It's time to salute and celebrate to a career of a man who has served test cricket for 9 years. Who has been one of the greatest captain in the world. (He is 8th most successful captain in the world when it comes to win percentage) .  Hope he comes out one day- his timing is usually perfect- and answers all the questions.. All the criticism he had..

All the best Mahi for the ODI tri - series coming up in Australia and the big World Cup after that.. Hope you become only the third captain in history of cricket to win the world cup twice. Will surely miss you in your white jersey number 251.

Behti Hawa Sa Tha Wo... Udti Patang Sa Tha Wo...  Kaha Gaya Usse Dhundo....

You can see the wetness in their eyes

INDIA VS AUSTRALIA, 3RD TEST MATCH, MCG

Wow..  What a thrilling final day!!!  It could have been more thrilling had Australia declared earlier.  Never the less,  their bowlers were fantastic first up.  Picking up 3 quick wickets. After that India was only looking for a draw,  and rightly so!  Kohli and Rahane batted brilliantly.  Pujara also showed some resistance.  And then Ashwin and Dhoni managed to bat around 12 overs to make sure Australia won't win.  Smith thought his bowlers can't run through India's weak tail in the last 4 overs and decided to shake hands with the batsmen.

Test Match started with India restricting the Kangaroos on the first day.  But they lost the grip as the Aussies scored freely on day 2. Not to forget wayward bowling by the Indian quicks.  But thanks to Murli Vijay's solid start and Kohli-Rahane's counter-attacking yet very sensible partnership,  India were short by just 65 runs of Australia's mammoth first innings total of 530. Indian bowlers improved their performance in the second innings,  bowling good line and length.  At the end of day 4 match was evenly poised with Aussies leading by 326 odd runs and 98 overs still to go on day 5. With 3 wickets in hand everyone expected that Australia will bat for another 6-7 overs,  score quick runs and declare the inning.  But the young Australian skipper had some different plans.  Without showing any urgency they batted for 2 hours (till lunch)  extending their lead to 384.
3 early wickets and India given up the record chase. Bat 70 overs and drew the test match was the objective for them and they did it at the end!!!

Kohli and his Statement--
       The Australians are known for their aggressive and attacking cricket and so is Virat Kohli.  The spat started when Johnson threw the ball at stumps and which hit Kohli's calf,  Mitch Johnson apologized instantly but Kohli didn't take it well,  he was disturbed he was dropped,  once he settled his nerves the verbal battle began between him and few Australians.  Kohli went ahead and made it public,  by stating 'There is no reason to respect the Australians who don't respect me.'  and he continued saying, "whatever target they give we will try and chase it down.  We will play for the win"
May be this statement by Kohli set Johnson on fire.  And even Steve Smith must have had a little doubt what if Indians really chase it down,  because they came really close in the first test.  May be that's why he didn't declare the innings earlier.

The Australians were fired up by Kohli came hard at him and other Indians,  but couldn't manage to wrap up the innings in the 66 overs that they bowled. 

Hope that the Indian bowlers will continue their form of 'bowling in one area ' in the last test match.  And Vijay,  Kohli,  Rahane continue their red hot form,  wherein Pujara and Dhawan need to get some runs in the Sydney test. 

It was really fascinating to watch the full test match..  Even if that meant waking up early morning at 5, in this chilly winter. Wish it could have been early declaration by Australia to see a result of one team winning rather than a draw.  Never the less it was a real thriller!