Millions of Indian supporters had their hearts broken when MS Dhoni was run out against New Zealand on 10 July, in the semi-final of the Old Trafford, Manchester ODI World Cup.
After 48 overs, India were at 209/7 having lost Ravindra Jadeja who played his most outstanding innings – a knock of 77 (59) which saw four sixes and fours.
At that precise moment, India needed 31 runs to win from 12 balls with Hardik Pandya batting and chances were high that he would finish the match off for them.
The penultimate over was bowled by Ferguson where Dhoni hit a six off the opening delivery towards deep backward point. The second ball went down as a dot ball.
However, it happened on the third ball of this over that ironically broke millions of Indian hearts as they watched him get run out while he is considered an excellent batsman between wickets.
Ferguson came round the wicket and bowled a slower one on a length; trying to pull it short fine leg; Dhoni got cramped up as it popped up off his gloves.
Dhoni ran two with Bhuvneshwar Kumar at facing end but there was a slight hesitation during the second one which cost him his wicket as Martin Guptill failed to make direct hit at stumps keeper’s end.
India fell short by eighteen runs as Dhoni was run-out after making fifty off seventy-two deliveries thus seeing them exit early from world cup tournament.
A video has now emerged online where during an event, someone asked Dhoni about that particular moment and how she dealt with it.
In response, Dhoni stated: “It was difficult because I knew this is going to be my last World Cup so it would have been really nice if we could’ve won. It hurts but you come full term with reality very quickly and move on. Time thoda lagta hai aur World Cup ke baad thoda time mil bhi jata hai. Maine toh uske baad international khela nahi hai toh mujhe toh kaafi time mila hai. (It takes time and one gets some time after the World Cup. I haven’t played any international after that, so I got a lot of time). So, yes, it was a heartbreak but at the same time you have to get out of it. So you just accept that you tried your best, but you were not able to win it.”
Mahendra Singh Dhoni is widely considered as one of the greatest captains as well as wicket keeper batsmen in cricketing history. He took over as captain of the Indian cricket team in 2007.
Under his stewardship, India won several prestigious ICC tournaments including ICC T20 World Cup 2007, ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, and ICC Champions Trophy 2013.
He hung up his boots from Test cricket in December 2014 before finally saying goodbye to International Limited overs cricket on August 15th, 2020 although he still plays IPL.
