Former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Sri Lankan pace bowler Nuwan Kulasekara lauded MS Dhoni for not bringing up the 2011 ODI World Cup final despite sharing a dressing room soon after the marquee event in the IPL. In a stunning finale, Dhoni smashed Kulasekara for the winning six to help India win the 2011 World Cup title as well. He scored a stunning 79-ball 91* to crush Sri Lanka’s hopes of a second ODI World Cup title. However, he was part of CSK in the 2011 and 2012 IPL seasons, playing under MS Dhoni.
Recalling Dhoni’s personality during his CSK stint, Kulasekara said in an interview with RevSportz: “I joined Chennai Super Kings immediately after the World Cup, but Dhoni never spoke about that final. That shows the kind of person he is. He is incredibly calm and always focused on the present. For him, the past is over. His only concern was winning the next game. That is something I really admired about him.”
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“In cricket, especially during the powerplay and the death overs, such things can happen to any bowler. I tried my best to dismiss him (Dhoni), but he still hit me for a six. The positive memory is that we came back and won the 2014 T20 World Cup in a similar fashion. That is how this beautiful game works,” he again said.
Nuwan Kulasekara also shared his regret in dropping former India batter Gautam Gambhir in the 2011 ODI World Cup final. Gambhir was batting on 30 when Kulasekara put down a relatively simple catch at the boundary, and then Gambhir scored a match-winning 97 off 122 deliveries as well.
“At one stage we definitely believed we could win. I dropped an important catch off Gambhir, and naturally there is regret. But these moments happen in big matches. Ben Stokes experienced something similar in the 2016 T20 World Cup final before going on to play a match-winning role in England’s 2019 World Cup triumph. These experiences are part of the game. I also believe the dew played a significant role in that final,” concluded Kulasekara.
