Awestruck by Mahendra Singh Dhoni's swashbuckling knock against his side, former Australia all-rounder and Sunrisers Hyderabad coach Tom Moody says India is "very lucky" to have the 31-year-old "special" cricketer as captain.
"Dhoni is special. It is as simple as that. In any form of the game he performs remarkably. He is a very special cricketer and a very special leader. Chennai and India are very lucky to have him," Moody said.
It was Dhoni's blazing half-century that guided Chennai to a win over Hyderabad in a tense IPL match here last night.
Moody said they fell 10-15 runs short of setting up what, according to him, would have been a match-winning total.
"I think we were ten or fifteen runs short of what we should have scored," Moody said after his team's last-over defeat.
"After the loss of early wickets we managed to build momentum at the back end with some good batting by Shikhar Dhawan and Ashish Reddy. We may have made a bit of ground but we lost early wickets.
"In T-20 cricket if you lose early wickets it is hard to get the total that you would like to get," the Aussie added.
Moody was however pleased with the way his boys fought and said they showed a lot of character.
"The pluses are that we fought very hard. We showed the characteristics of a side that is prepared to fight right down to the last ball. I am very proud that each of the players stuck in the game and they fought and stayed in the contest.
"We showed to a lot of people that we are a side that has got character and prepared to fight regardless of the big names that Chennai have.
