not out matches the greatest innings ever played by a captain in the WC
Final. His 79 ball innings could be compared the the match winning 102 made
by Clive Lloyd in the '75 final !
"Dhoni's unbeaten 91, topped off with a towering six over long-on to win the
match, was an astonishing innings. It was fashioned under pressure but with
a freedom found mostly a peg or two down from the kind of stage upon which a
World Cup final is played," Atherton said.
"The greatest innings ever played by a captain in a World Cup final was
Clive Lloyd's monumental hundred against Australia at Lord's in the
inaugural tournament in 1975 and if this was not its equal then it was not
far behind," he wrote in his column for The Times newspaper.
"Lloyd was in Mumbai in his role as chairman of the ICC's Cricket Committee
and as Dhoni went past him on the stage to collect his man of the match award,
the West Indian would have recognised a fellow traveller," he said.
Dhoni was under intense scrutiny by one billion people and Atherton was all
praise for his leadership qualities. .
"Nobody, except Sachin Tendulkar, has been under more scrutiny. Every
decision, every move, every statement has been pored over by an army of
writers and pundits. After the defeat against South Africa, Dhoni criticised
his batsmen for playing to the gallery rather than for the team and it was
as if he had tossed a meaty bone to the most voracious pack of jackals
imaginable ... they gnawed on this juicy offering for days to come.
"When, in the same match, he gave Ashish Nehra the final over instead of
Harbhajan Singh, an instinctive move that was perfectly reasonable but one
that was backfired, it was a ploy that was commented upon and chewed over
... And why, everyone wanted to know, was Ashwin not playing at all?" wrote
Atherton.
"Throughout, though, Dhoni has carried himself with the air of a man for
whom such matters were trivial. Not once, until he let the mask slip on the
podium, did he complain about the spotlight; not once did he lose his cool
on the field."
Nobody doubted the Indian talent to win the WC, but the question was whether
they could absorb the formidable pressure and emerge victorious. Dhoni as
the leader did his duty with calmness and supreme confidence.
"This was a triumph of leadership, pure and simple. The question throughout
was not whether India had the talent to win the World Cup but whether they
had the men to do it. Could they cope with the round-the-clock scrutiny, the
suffocating, all encompassing demands of public for whom anything other than
the ultimate victory would have been unacceptable. In short, did they have
the bottle?
"They had it all right - whole jeroboams of it - and, on a magnificent and
moving night in Mumbai which sealed the glorious career of one modern master
whilst bringing down the curtain on another, nobody embodied this strength
of mind and character more than their captain Dhoni. His calmness throughout
has been a key factor in enabling this team to reach its potential," wrote
the former English captain.
With his decision to come ahead of the Man of the Tournament, which was an
example of a leader taking upon himself the responsibility of leading from
the front and with a superb display of power batting,
Dhoni had silenced millions of critics !
Atherton felt Dhoni's move to promote himself up the order in the final was
the perfect example of a captain taking upon himself the responsibility of
leading from the front.
"From the very first ball, which he blocked, but with such crispness and
determination in his footwork, it was clear that Dhoni was ready to seize
the moment and shape his team's destiny.
"When he came into the Indian team he was a bit of a showpony, if truth be
told, riding his man of the match bike around the outfield, and playing
crazy shots almost for the sake of it. Few would have guessed that a mature
leader was lurking within.
"Yet there he was on Saturday evening, as the fireworks lit the Mumbai
skyline, millions hanging on his every word and waiting for the moment when
he would become only the second Indian captain to grasp the World Cup in his
hands."
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