WATCH | Steve Smith seeks MS Dhoni's help before the last over against Mumbai
The whole cricketing world watched in shock as MS Dhoni was relieved of his duties as the captain of the Pune side just before the India-Australia series. While most fans joked about how the Indian would still be in-charge of major calls in the IPL, they were, surprisingly, not too far off the mark.
In the match against Mumbai Indians, Pune needed to defend 17 runs off the last over after Ben Stokes had given away just 7 in the previous one. Having to choose from two options Shardul Thakur and Jaydev Unadkat, Steve Smith made his way towards Dhoni to seek his advice on which bowler to hand the ball to. The duo was joined by Ajinkya Rahane who gave an account of the conversation that took place among the three players.
"After the 19th over, when (Steve) Smith, I and Mahi bhai (Mahendra Singh Dhoni) were discussing who should bowl between Shardul and Jaydev, we picked Jaydev. Shardul has good pace and we didn't want to give batsman the pace in the last over,” Rahane said after the game.
"Jaydev's pace is comparatively lesser than Shardul and his slower ball is effective. The wicket was also little slow and Rohit (Sharma) was a set batsman, so our point was not to give them pace. One side of the ground is small and one or two shots in the last over (could have made the difference). That was the planning in the last over.”
The decision proved to be the right one as Pune emerged victorious by a narrow margin of 3 runs. Smith had suggested before the IPL that he was the captain of the squad but had not ruled out taking advice from other experienced players and by the likes of things, it appears he made the right call yesterday.
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