Excuse Me! I need a phychologist!

If somebody will ask MSD whether anyone in the world can read his mind, there won’t be any I am sure. India has yet again won in Auckland in the last league match against Zimbabwe! And we are seeing the best performance of MSD along with his CSK teammate Suresh Raina. 92/4, everything happens for a reason. Chasing huge target above 280, India lost early wickets under before completing 100. When Kohli got out, we could see how crowd in Auckland became completely silent for a while. But this was the opportunity for the rest of the batsmen to show some power in World Cup matches. Couple of days ago, Sachin Tendulkar even said that he was unhappy for not seeing long innings from captain. Now he must be happy.  Suresh Raina & Dhoni were batting slowly and everyone knew (including me), if one of the batsman was gone, India would have been in huge trouble. But there was a relief in my heart that nothing will happen until MSD was there.

At one stage, the required run rate even touched 9.50 RPO, still I was feeling easy with situation because in the past I have seen how the required rate even reached around 11.50 & MSD won the match. MSD was not playing huge shots while Raina was making them possible with each opportunity whenever he was getting a chance. MSD not only played a role of “Captain Cool” but also became a ‘mentor’ of Raina. We saw how he was instructing him on various occasions. (You must have noticed how he was using Hindi language against the previous match with Ireland) His strategies are tremendous. There is no doubt about it. During his innings, he didn’t hit any helicopter shot but all wanted the situation when India needed 6 runs and Dhoni would come to bat. The situation came and Dhoni reminded everyone the moment of 2011 World Cup,

WC 2011, winning shot by MSD @ Wankhede.

at the Wankhede where he ended the match with a long six. This time he hit at the longest fence near fine leg area and ended the game! Happy ending for us, happy ending for fans at Auckland and happy ending of league games as India won all matches. Now India has won consecutive 10 matches in World Cups, Record partnership has been made between Suresh Raina & MSD. Suresh Raina won man of the match.

Farewell Brendan Taylor:

We should not forget the star performer of this match Brendan Taylor who was playing his last match today. He made tremendous 138 today and played fantastic shots all over the stadium. Because of this innings, Zimbabwe could reach such defendable total above 280 easily. They deserved even more but fall of wickets restricted them.  When Brendan Taylor was caught, many Indian players came to congratulate him. Suresh Raina was the very first one to come (I believe he must have whispered in his ears that he would take it from there, thank you. J), then came Virat Kohli & the last one to greet him was Shikhar Dhavan. But it was a complete entertainment when he was batting. We hope these victories keep continue. Now the journey will become tougher as the best teams of the tournaments are going to collide. Bangladesh next, and for people like you & me, office first, we’ll definitely miss the excitement!