On Thursday morning the first match of the 3 game ODI series between India and Bangladesh in Bangladesh was to be played.
All the headlines read: “Bangladesh Looking for Revenge”. Each of these headlines was accompanied with the same statistics, odds, head-to-heads and the general humdrum of pre-game analyses.
The headline made me exclaim that the media sensationalises everything because according to me, Bangladesh beating India to revenge their quarter-final defeat in the ICC Cricket World Cup earlier this year was highly unlikely.
I wanted to take it back as soon as the thought came to my head, because I felt it was unfair to write them off even before the game. But as my eyes lingered on the rest of the article, the words they saw just substantiated my impulse reaction.
Although any accompanying information should complement the headline, the supplements were contrary and together, the two were completely paradoxical.
As funny and ironic as it could have turned out to be, Bangladesh scored 307 and beat India by a huge 79 run margin.
The joke is definitely on me. Bangladesh got their revenge and they served it well. They dominated throughout the game.
Through the course of the match, something more surprising had happened. Captain cool lost his cool.
Bang in the middle of the Indian chase, Dhoni set off for a single of a delivery of left-arm bowler Mustafizur Rahman. Rahman glanced at Dhoni and apparently moved towards him, coming in his way.
On approaching him, Dhoni shoved him to the side.
Dhoni later defended himself by saying that he tried his best to avoid the collision but given his momentum he knew that wouldn’t be a possibility. On realising this, he used his arms not to push him away, but to minimise the impact from the contact.
The judgement however, stated that both players were guilty of breach of Article 2.4.4 of the ICC Code of conduct. They were charged of “inappropriate and deliberate physical contact between players in the course of play during an international match”.
Consequences are the unavoidable aftermath of our actions and thus, this case (legal) was no different.
Rahman was fined 50% of his match fee and Dhoni 75%.
Keeping calm is his best virtue but the situation got the better of him.
We shouldn’t be too shocked though, because MS Dhoni has never failed to surprise us and this time too, he pulled a rabbit out of the hat.
