MS Dhoni outsmarts Shakib Al Hasan with his field change

The Super Four stage of the Asia Cup 2018 got underway today with all the four teams in action. The Indian team having won both their group matches met Bangladesh in Dubai. The Bangladeshis were asked to bat first as Team India wanted them to set a target. Shakib Al Hasan was out there in the middle as early as the fifth over as they lost Liton Das pretty early in the innings. He got off to a rapid start but his stay was short-lived as MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja executed his dismissal with perfection.

It was the 10th over of the match, Jadeja who replaced Hardik Pandya in the XI was already in action. Shakib had crashed the second ball which was a free-hit through the off-side for a boundary, he swept the next through square-leg and now had two fours in the over. Skipper Rohit Sharma had quite an attacking field with a slip in place and wanted to add pressure on the batsman.

Former Indian skipper MS Dhoni who was standing behind the stumps realized that the left-hander would like to play more deliveries towards the on-side and thus went up to Rohit for a chat. He suggested that Shikhar Dhawan standing at slip be moved out and rather placed at square-leg.

Guess what happened on the very next ball. Shakib failed to realize that there was protection in place now and played the repeat shot, the ball wasn’t full enough but he went for the sweep and hit is straight into Dhawan’s hands. It was as easy a wicket as it gets.

Shakib was a crucial wicket for the Indians as the all-rounder has the ability to take the game away. He already had got off to a start with 17 runs from 12 balls but Dhoni’s tactical thinking once again beat the batter and it proved to be a huge blow to the Bangladeshis. They struggled all the way through the innings and after 37 overs have just 119 runs on the board for the loss of 7 wickets.

Here is the video of the dismissal:

pic.twitter.com/gDxBUpoB6y

— Gentlemen's Game (@DRVcricket) September 21, 2018