While India's dominating victory over Ireland in their Pool B World Cup match must have undoubtedly brought a lot of positives to the team, skipper MS Dhoni bagged another laurel equaling legend Clive Lloyd’s record of nine consecutive World Cup wins as captain.
To get it further marvelous, the 33-year-old also became India's most successful ODI captain in World Cups with 12 wins surpassing Kapil Dev (11 wins).
The record of getting the opposition all out in five consecutive matches was one of the best performances the men in blue have exhibited in the recent past. A visibly buoyant Dhoni lavished praise on the team in the post-match press meet on Tuesday.
“One of the coaches said that it is really good to have a stat like 50 wickets in 5 matches. It means the bowlers are really doing the job for us. It's a remarkable difference, they've really stepped up. Not just the three fast bowlers, the spinners as well, and whenever we've had to use part-timers they've done a good job. Looks like a happy unit,” Dhoni said.
“I knew, even after 4-5 overs, I could bring the spinners in action if I wanted, but I still went ahead with the fast bowlers in the first 10 overs. Also, Suresh (Suresh Raina) did really well, a lot of left-handers, and he got through his 10 overs,” he said.
Captain Cool was being seen regularly yelling out instructions to his bowlers and fielders during the first innings.
“Rayudu, jaag ke zara. Iska paer dekh kaise hil raha hai. Uske hisaab se anticipate kar. Volleyball ki tarah khada hua hai beech mein” [Rayudu, wake up. Watch his feet movement and anticipate where he’s going to hit. Don’t keep standing in the middle like a Volleyball game] - Dhoni was heard telling this to substitute fielder Ambati Rayudu over the stump mic.
“At times I just try to tell them what my gut feel is and whatever I can read from behind with the initial movements of the batsman. Hindi is the ideal language, because everyone understands it but the batsman doesn't. We have been here for over four months, we had to sacrifice somewhere, and that was the intensity in the ODI series, especially after the effort we had put in during the Test series.
I knew it would be back when the World Cup started. Even this game was a challenge, a lot of them are jet-lagged and sleep-deprived. I'm glad all of us have stepped up. It feels good. Everyone is happy we have been able to win nine consecutive games, we just have to take the momentum forward.”
