Never dreamt I would score a fifty in one-dayers: Bhuvneshwar

At 131 for 7 in the second One-Day International in Pallekele, few would have given India the chance of going 2-0 up in the five-match series. The only hope India had was if MS Dhoni played a blinder while Bhuvneshwar Kumar and ones after him did not lose their wickets.

Much to agony and surprise of the crowd at the Pallekele International Stadium on Thursday, Dhoni and Bhuvneshwar added an unbeaten 100 runs for the eighth wicket and guided India to a win. It was not India’s best performance with the bat, but it will take pride in the fact that it was able to bounce back from a situation as dire.

Dhoni was the orchestrator with his calculated approach, and that is expected from the master finisher, but the surprise package came in the form of Bhuvneshwar. While Bhuvneshwar has shown he is more than a handful with the bat in Tests, he as a match-winning proposition in ODIs seemed out of sync with reality. And yet, he came up with his career-best one-day knock of 53 not out when the tables were turned on India by an inspiring spell of bowling from Akila Dhananjaya.

“I never thought in my dreams that I would score a fifty in one-dayers… not fifty but a match-winning knock because one-day cricket doesn’t suit my batting because I am not kind of batsman who can hit big sixes,” said Bhuvneshwar after the game.

“But that kind of situation was perfect for me because it was totally a Test match situation. When I went in, MS said the same thing… “play the way you play in Test matches”. I didn’t want to do anything different. I just wanted to play all those overs.

“I was calm because I knew that in the last five overs if we needed seven to eight runs per over, Dhoni was there. So I didn’t want to worry about scoring runs. I just wanted to play all those overs,” said the Meerut-born paceman.

As a bowler in the India side, the likelihood of getting a chance to bat in an innings is slim at best. There have not been too many situations since the start of 2017 where India has had to rely on its lower order in a chase. In fact, the last time India won with three wickets in hand was against England in Pune in January, which could perhaps explain Bhuvneshwar’s surprise.

“It was a little surprising because we had a very good opening partnership. Then 3-4 wickets fell quickly so it was a bit of a panic situation for us, we were wondering what’s going on,” he described.

“But MS told me to not let the pressure get to me because we have a lot of overs and we knew that if we played them out, we would complete the chase easily. So when I went in there wasn’t any pressure really because I knew there is nothing to lose in this situation as we were already seven down. I was just thinking that I can play and that I have to support MS as much as I can.”

That was the case for a decent portion of their alliance as Bhuvneshwar expectedly rotated the strike and brought Dhoni on as often as possible. But after carting Milinda Siriwardana for a six in the 38th over, Bhuvneshwar came into his own. He took control of the run chase, finding the boundaries without taking many risks to race past his skipper en route to a maiden ODI fifty. Dhoni may have been forced to farm strike had India lost another wicket, but letting a No.9 grab the bull by its horns in that situation could not have even easy, and yet that is exactly what Dhoni did because of trust in Bhuvneshwar’s ability.

“He said play as you want to play. We didn’t plan anything special as such. It was a normal plan because we knew that we didn’t need to do anything different. We knew that we just needed to play singles and play out the 47 overs,” explained Bhuvneshwar.

“We had to run harder because we knew that by adding singles and doubles we would get to a stage where we wouldn’t need to stress ourselves in need of six or seven runs per over.”

What was especially worthy of praise was Bhuvneshwar’s handling of Dhananjaya. The 23-year-old spinner had taken the mickey out India’s batsmen, surging to figures of 6 for 30 from six overs. Dhoni playing out the spinner without much fuss was only expected, but Bhuvneshwar’s reading of Dhananjaya’s ‘mystery’ deliveries was particularly heart-warming for any Indian supporter.

“Initially, it was a bit difficult to read him from the hand but later on I could read his variations from the hand,” said Bhuvneshwar.

“Basically he is an offspinner but he was also bowling leg-breaks and googlies so it was a surprise for us. When I went in I just wanted to play him as a wrong one or the googlies which he was bringing in to me. And whatever was going away from me I wasn’t really worried about. Most of the wickets he took were with the ball coming into the right-hander so my plan was to focus on countering that.”

Grit, patience, and plenty of heart were needed in a chase of this nature. The duo showed an abundance of those traits, but Bhuvneshwar and Dhoni will know that if it had not been for some luck, they would have had to witness Sri Lanka celebrate its first win since India’s arrival on their shores.

In the 35th over, Dhoni rocked back to try and flick Vishwa Fernando. The former India skipper missed the ball entirely, only to feel the blow against his inner-thigh guard. The ball then sneaked between his leg and kissed the bottom of the stumps. Much to Sri Lanka’s dismay, the bails did not come off.

“It was a lucky thing for us that the bails didn’t fall off,” said Bhuvneshwar with a tired but content smile.