Gambhir, Dhoni Impress

India’s fightback last night after being four down was remarkable. Gautam Gambhir continued his dream run in the T20 World Cup and the good form in the domestic circuit with one of his finest centuries. Last night’s performance was brilliant in every sense. His running between the wickets, his handling of Muralitharan and his big hits down the ground were all very impressive. The ease with which he reached his 100 in the last over speaks volumes of his confidence. Under Dhoni, Gambhir seems to have found his groove. With his position in the team now rock solid, we might just see him scale greater heights. 

Dhoni on the other hand deserves to be commended for a real captain’s knock. The manner in which he curtailed his bang-bang style of aggressive cricket and deployed instead a more sensible and steady approach is a sure sign of his maturity. Walking in at a time when India was struggling, he played a calm innings with some aggressive running between the wickets. This was easily the best running between the wickets that India has displayed in a long time. Most importantly, this was against the Sri Lankan team whose ground fielding was excellent, barring a couple of dropped catches.

Yuvraj’s failure once again proved that he is a very poor player of spin. Brad Hogg and Muralitharan have always troubled him. In addition to overcoming his poor batting form, he will need to figure out a way to tackle these two bowler in order to come good in this series. India’s good score despite the failure of Yuvraj and the limited success of Sachin and Sehwag, should serve as a psychological boost to the young team after the disastrous T20 game against Australia and the batting failure in the first ODI.