The Midas touch

India chasing 387 in the fourth innings and winning is a rare sight. Especially with the way the team batted in the first innings with the top order batsmen lacking application. I think India won this match because they believed in themselves to go for a win. Dhoni though seems a laid back captain is very aggressive in his approach and that's where you need the aggression. You dont need to show your aggression in the press conferences and in the interviews. With due respect to Kumble I doubt whether we would have gone for the win straight away under his captaincy. I am a huge fan of Anil Kumble but I think there has been paradigm shift in the way India approaches the game of cricket under MS Dhoni. Earlier we would have thought of reaching a position from where you cant lose and then press the onus for winning. The way Sachin Tendulkar batted was a treat to watch. He has proved over and over again that he is a great cricketer. With Sachin at the crease the confidence of the team is very high and with Laxman the fifth day pitch seems a belter and batting looks so simple. Yuvraj Singh reminds me of David Gower not that they resemble in the way they bat. Both are classy players but you cant have more players like them in the team as they are not always reliable as they will give bowlers a chance but on their day they will be ruthless. The stage was perfectly set for Yuvraj to play his natural attacking cricket and he took a lot of pressure off sachin. Sachin scored yet another century in test cricket. One of his few century in the fourth innings. He scored 1000 runs in the calender year during this innings. This is the fifth time he has done so (the first Indian) along with Lara and Hayden. Sachin has played so many match winning knocks in the first innings but this one rates really high as it came in the second innings and the first ton in the second innings which India managed to win. Centuries at Chennai against Pakistan in 1999 and at perth against Austalia in 1992 came in losing cause. Few other centuries resulted in a draw. This is also the highest run chase in India making the win even more special. However it also needs to be said we put ourselves into trouble by batting poorly in the first innings. Dhoni should be the captain even after he retires.