MS Dhoni is definitely the best finisher cricket has seen, reveals Greg Chappell
Greg Chappell has opined that MS Dhoni is definitely the best finisher that the game has ever seen in its history before recalling the first time he met the right-hander bat. The former Indian coach has also revealed that his knock of 183 against Sri Lanka was power-hitting at its very best.
Greg Chappell’s coaching stint with the Indian team coincided with the rise of two power-hitters, Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni. The right-handed Dhoni made his Indian debut at the age of 22, with the ODI series against Bangladesh in 2004. In just his first game, the elegant and dashing batsmen was dismissed on the first-ball, courtesy of a run-out, but that was just a minor blip in what was going to be a glittering career. The Australian revealed that MS Dhoni is definitely the best finisher that the game has seen.
"I always used to challenge him if he could finish the game. There used to be a booming smile on his face, whenever he used to score the winning runs. He is definitely the best finisher the game has ever seen," said Chappell.
"I vividly remember that I was left awestruck when I saw him batting for the first time. He was definitely the most exciting cricketer in India at that time. He used to hit the ball from the most unusual positions. He is the most powerful batsman I have ever seen," he added,
In the 2005 series against Sri Lanka, the Jharkhand batsman got off to a flyer, scoring 183* against the Island nation. Chappell recalled that, in the very next game, he had advised the Indian to take it slowly and hit the ball along the ground. What prevailed in the encounter was exactly what the Australian had asked for. Dhoni knocked the ball to the empty parts of the ground during his knock of 45* in India’s four-wicket victory over Sri Lanka.
"I remember his knock of 183 against Sri Lanka and how he tore them apart. It was power hitting at its very best. The next match was in Pune. I asked MS, 'why don't you play along the ground more instead of trying to hit every ball to the boundary'. We were chasing 260 odd and were in a good position and Dhoni was playing a contrasting innings to the one he had played just a couple of days before,” he added.
“We still needed 20 runs to win and Dhoni asked me, through 12th man RP Singh if he could hit sixes. I told him not until the target was in single digit. When we needed six runs to win, he finished the game with a six.”
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