With England 200/7 in chase of 330 on Sunday, the match was heavily titled in the favour of Indian team before Sam Curran led an stunning revival with a knock he will remember for some time to come. While the end result may not have gone in favour of his team, Curran must be proud of his never-say-die attitude that nearly took England over the line in the series-deciding final ODI in Pune.
Curran belted an unbeaten 95 off 83, an innings that featured nine fours and three sixes. England finished on 322/9 but the left-hander’s heroics have led to comparisons with the legendary MS Dhoni with whom he shares the dressing room for his IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings.
Dhoni was known for his finishing skills and is often counted among the best finishers of the game. And England stand-in captain Jos Buttler reckons Curran’s latest innings made him think of the former India captain.
“I’m sure Sam would want to talk to MS about tonight’s innings,” Buttler said after the match. “I’m sure there were shades of the way that he (Dhoni) would have liked to take the game down if he was in that situation. He’s a great person for Sam to have a conversation with when he meets up MS (in IPL).”
Not only Curran, another England allrounder Moeen Ali will also rub shoulders with Dhoni after being picked by CSK at the IPL auction in February this year and Buttler feels it’s a golden opportunity for them to learn from the two-time world cup winning captain.
“We know what an amazing cricketer, finisher MS Dhoni is. A brilliant learning curve for all our players to share dressing rooms with guys like MS’ stature in the game. I’m very excited for them,” Buttler said.
Speaking of England’s chase, Buttler said losing wickets regularly meant they failed to get a big partnership going but the target wasn’t daunting at any stage. “We were happy to chase that score. We thought that was a manageable score, but we lost wickets at regular intervals and never got those partnerships together. Never thought run-rate would be a big issue but we lost wickets,” Buttler said.
“Small, small things could have done better. I think with the ball we were not quite as disciplined as we have been early on. We gave them a few too many easy boundary balls. They didn’t have to work too hard for those boundaries, but then we pegged back pretty well with spinners picking up those wickets,” he added.