Dhoni was anxious to perform: Stephen Fleming

MS Dhoni played a great hand in Rising Pune Supergiant’s win in their last game against defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad on Saturday. Chasing 177 to win, Dhoni with his ice-cool temperament guided Pune home, hitting the winning runs off the last ball.

He has been under immense scrutiny this year, following a poor start to the season. He was struggling to put the ball away and the pressure was palpable on India’s most successful captain’s face. He doused all the criticism with a vintage knock of 61* which came off 34 balls and helped his side get over the line with 6 wickets in hand.

Stephen Fleming, who is the RPS coach and has worked with Dhoni very closely in the IPL, said that Dhoni has been training very hard and was determined to change the fortunes of the franchise.

“He was determined. He has been training a lot. He has certainly hit a lot of balls and it was all building up to an innings of substance. He desperately wants us to do well this year. After last year, we all felt we needed more contribution from everybody,”

“He (Dhoni) in particular was the one to put his hand up. So, he has wanted to win a game. Steve Smith as well has been wanting to win a game and our big players want to contribute and one of our biggest did that yesterday, which was great,” said Fleming on the eve of the game against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium.

Fleming and Dhoni had established an excellent captain and coach partnership with CSK for 8 seasons. They were procured by RPS together but couldn’t emulate the same performance with their new franchise as they finished the season ranked 7th in the points table.

RPS replaced Dhoni with Steve Smith as the captain of the team for this season. The move was widely criticised by the cricketing fraternity citing the unfair treatment of one of the best captains to have ever played the game. Dhoni was calm and offered full support to the newly appointed captain. No runs in the first 5 games meant that the pressure was mounting on ‘Mahi’.

No runs in the first 5 games meant that the pressure was mounting on ‘Mahi’.

“He has never listened or been affected by all the off-field talk. In some ways he isolates himself away from that, which is a good thing, especially in India with the pressure and the amount of talk there is. But still, the calmness he shows in such situations is one of his greatest assets. And yesterday (Saturday), it was to the fore.”

Pune needed 56 runs off the last 4 overs, and at once stage, it looked like they delayed the late flourish just a wee bit. Dhoni has a reputation of taking things right down to the wire and has achieved a fair amount of success for a long period of time as a finisher, something which Fleming pointed out.

“We thought that it was probably late and we had not got too much of the total to leave us with a good chase in the end, but he proved it with the hitting and batting skills and the power that players have these days that no score is impossible,” said Fleming.

“It was vintage (Dhoni), wasn’t it? It was a performance that was befitting of a man who has the reputation of being a great finisher. There has been a discussion around when was the last time he has played an innings like that. You got to remember playing an innings like that we had got a bit blasé about how special they were. But yesterday he proved again that when he is in the mood and has got the sight or the feel for the bowling, he is still the most destructive closer.”