Tuesday 13 / May / 2025
Akila Dananjaya tied the knot with Nethalie Tekshini around noon on Wednesday, August 24, rushed through the wedding ceremonies held at a resort in Moratuwa to join the Sri Lankan team and outwitted the Indian top order the next day being cheered on by his sweetheart from the sidelines to pick up a six-for — and it looked like a dream beginning of a new life for the couple who had put on hold their honeymoon plans.
It would have been an incredible day for them to cherish forever but for the boring presence of a man in the middle who messed up their bliss with a bit of luck and a load of cool.
That man was, obviously, MS Dhoni, who put on a 100-run partnership with Bhuvneshwar Kumar to steady India from a shaky 137 for seven to a three-wicket victory. The man who walked up to Kumar and asked him to play the way “you played in Test matches” and watched with unconcern from the other end the block-and-tackle rituals.
Dhoni seemed happy to let the lesser mortal get the work done. He was on seven off 13 deliveries when Kumar joined him in the 22nd over. At the end of the 34th over, both of them had faced 43 balls, with Dhoni making 29 and Kumar 12, and by the 40th the latter went past his senior partner in terms of balls faced (68) and runs scored (36).
All this could be interpreted in many ways, both good and bad, such as a brilliant display of the right approach and attitude required for the situation, or a clever attempt at masking a perceived lack of self belief gripped by the fear of consequences another failure could have set in motion.
From the point of view of a man under pressure to perform or perish, what Dhoni did at Kandy may look like passing up a godsend to pitch his case for an extended shelf-life, but from a captain’s perspective it was a beautiful example of putting the team ahead of self interest and personal glory. The warm hug offered by Virat Kohli at the end of the match to his ex-boss would sum it up.
The soberness amid shocks displayed by Team India in the second ODI was another chance for Kohli to talk about how the team is strong in self belief down to the last man. He is right to a point, but the old, familiar failings showing up now and then is a concern. First, the fall of a heap of wickets just at the end of a big partnership, which has been a primordial sin. Second, miracles and self belief are easy to conjure up when the stage is Asia or when the oppositions are weak. Imagine how Kumar would have handled a guy with lethal pace, like Mitchell Starc, in the same situation.
That brings Lasith Malinga into focus. He looked incapable of doing the trick. When Dananjaya wreaked havoc and India were seven down and 100 runs away from the target, it was a perfect platform for Malinga to step in and deliver, but his failure, which has become the order than exception, is one of the main reasons that the hosts lost the game from a winning position.
As Kumar dug out yorkers that lacked pace and purpose, Malinga ended up sending down wides that, at a crucial stage of the game, led to a nine-ball over, all of which made the Indians stronger than ever.
There was some middle stump magic and mystery about the Kandy crush saga. When Dananjaya outfoxed Kedar Jadhav, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul in a single over, and Hardik Pandya in the next, what spiced up the picture was the middle stump: gently knocked back and disconnected from the bails. Ironically, it was the same woodwork that denied Sri Lanka the breakthrough they were desperately looking for. Dhoni’s failed flick in the 35th over resulted in the ball bouncing his body and rolling on to the stumps and hitting the base of the middle stump hard — but the bails refused to come off.
India were destined to win the second ODI, though Dhanajaya looked very much the destiny’s child. Indian batsmen will turn up better prepared to deal with him in the third match on Sunday, but if the off-spinner lands his wrong ones in the right area, we might get to watch a bit of the middle sump dance all over again.
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The writer is a freelance contributor based in India. All the views and opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not reflect those of Times of Oman
