MS Dhoni was named Man of the Match on Wednesday for the first time since July 2013 -- after 27 months and 41 matches -- and he also took one of the stumps away with him, which is a sign of how important was the victory against South Africa in the 2nd ODI at the Holkar Stadium in Indore.
MS Dhoni's defiant innings of 92 runs from 86 balls earned India a hard-fought victory for the first time against South Africa in this marathon series. Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly heaped praises on the captain for his outstanding knock to rescue India from a slump and later for his captaincy skills to hand India a much-needed win.
"For last four years I've been saying he should bat up the order. It's no rocket science. Tendulkar would not have scored so many runs had he not opened," Ganguly told the reporters in Kolkata on Wednesday.
"He's given himself time and batted for 30-35 overs. However good you are if you don't get the number of overs how would you score runs."
If Ganguly was an aggressive skipper in his times, then Dhoni is calmness personified. Only Dhoni could tell us as to how difficult the situation was when India lost their top half of the batting order.
The silent guarding as one can refer him as stood tall right till the last ball of the innings and made sure that he gets most of the strikes. A lot of critics had slammed him after he failed to tale his sides over the line in the first ODI and he could not find a better way to stun them into silence.
Meanwhile, Virat Kohli is in a bit of a fix with his willow as he is going through a bad phase. He was run out on Wednesday as well. After getting starts, he failed to convert them into big scores. Ganguly backed Kohli as well along with Dhoni. Ganguly assured that Kohli will come good soon and asked the fans to be patient.
"He will score runs some day. Not everyday you can score a century, there will be ups and downs. Kohli is an absolute champion. He's a great player," Ganguly said.
