It seems like MS Dhoni does not need his signature ‘helicopter shot’ anymore as he has added rather orthodox shots into his quiver. Dhoni played in his typical fashion against Australia, moulding his batting according to the demand of the game, playing the waiting game and then unleashing brute force in the death overs. It would be apt to say that Dhoni has hit his own kind of purple patch in the previous few matches.
Dhoni rescued India out of the danger along with Hardik Pandya and batted almost till the end. He took on James Faulkner in the last over of the first innings. He had already hit Faulkner for two fours and a six in the previous over and therefore was determined to hit him big in the final over.
After missing out on a golden opportunity to hit a boundary off a free hit, Dhoni made the maximum of the opportunity he got on the next ball. He knew Faulkner was going to bowl it wide of him. He shuffled at the crease before Faulkner completed his runup, he was quick on his feet to come dancing down the wicket and hitting the ball with brute force over the long off boundary for a six.
He struck the good length delivery with immense power, such as it disappeared into the crowd as soon as it went over the rope. Dhoni struck his second six of the innings. He missed on the next delivery and got out of the next trying a similar shot while dancing down the wicket. Despite losing his wicket in the final over, Dhoni got a standing ovation from the players in the dressing room for his game-changing innings.
Dhoni scored 79 runs off 88 balls at a strike rate of 89.77 with the help of 4 fours and 2 sixes.
