Dhoni in a zone of his own
MS Dhoni has the unique ability to soak up pressure and ignore consequences
08-Aug-2014
MS Dhoni has the unique ability to soak up pressure and ignore consequences. It's evident in the way he conducts himself in press conferences. It's no different when he bats and his 71 at Old Trafford after the top-order train wreck was one such example, writes Vic Marks in the Guardian.
There was nothing beautiful about Dhoni's batting but there was a magnificent resolve. He punched away the odd overpitched ball with a short-arm jab that you do not find in the textbook. Watching the ball intently, he played late with barely a backlift. In this there were echoes of Basil D'Oliveira and his self-taught technique. With such powerful forearms and deft timing an elaborate backlift was of no great value to a D'Oliveira or a Dhoni.
In the Telegraph, Michael Vaughan writes that England were successful because they ditched the short ball for fuller lengths, with the ball swinging a mile.
Indian techniques are so geared to the ball coming back and playing it to the on side that the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and Murali Vijay were found out. They move their right shoulder around, bringing them square on to the wicket so their front foot is pointing down the pitch. If you look at Ajinkya Rahane, the best technical player in the Indian side, his front foot is placed on a 45-degree angle, which gives him a better chance to cover the ball swinging into his pads.