You gain confidence after bowling to players like Dhoni: Corey Anderson

In a live chat on Sportstar’s Instagram handle, New Zealand all rounder Corey Anderson talked about the difficulties he had to face while bowling to MS Dhoni, also saying that he learnt a lot from that experience.

“He is one of the greats of the game, one of the best finishers in the world. Very difficult to bowl to him. I had Virat Kohli at long on, AB de Villiers at long off. They were continuously running in to say what do we do, what was I thinking, what should I do,” Anderson said.

The man with the record of the second fastest hundred in ODI cricket, 36 balls against West Indies at Queenstown was supposed to be a part of the broadcasting team in this year’s IPL after attracting no bidders in the auction, which was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Even their thoughts were like ‘if you bowl here, he will hit you for a six’ and ‘if you bowl there, he will hit you for a six’. You can subdue the moment. You know that you aren’t the first one, he has done it to every bowler in the world at some point of time,” he added.

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We talked about how Indian and even foreign players have benefited from the influence of Dhoni in an earlier article, and with the following statement, Anderson affirmed to the same.

“Once you bowl to those guys, it gives you a massive insight to bowl to other guys. You gain confidence once you bowl to these bigger guys like Dhoni. At times, it is demoralising but it can make you a better cricketer,” he said.

Anderson was at the receiving end of one of the most memorable finishes to a game by the great man in the recent past. In an IPL game between CSK and RCB back in 2018, after CSK faltered to 74/4 in the 9th over, chasing a target of 206 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, MS Dhoni, along with Ambati Rayudu and later Dwayne Bravo, scripted an amazing comeback to recover and win the game. Dhoni’s onslaught contained 7 sixes, as he finished the game with a six, as always off Corey Anderson to win the game with two balls to spare, with 70 runs to his name. Anderson ended up conceding 58 runs off his 3.4 overs with and economy rate of 15.8 runs per over.