Twitter unhappy with MS Dhoni's slow innings in the first ODI against Australia

The Indian team began the One Day International series with a loss by 34 runs. Batting first, the Australian openers were dismissed early. However, the middle order came to the rescue. Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, and Peter Handscomb contributed with splendid fifties. Marcus Stoinis’ finishing exploits meant the hosts had 288/5 on the board.

The visitors were off to a poor start at the SCG. Shikhar Dhawan was out in the very first over as he was trapped in front of the stumps by Jason Behrendorff. Youngster Jhye Richardson then sent back both Virat Kohli and Ambati Rayudu in the fourth over. With the score 4/3, the onus fell upon Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni to avoid a collapse and get India through.

With India already three wickets down, both slowed down in the course of their innings. While Rohit gained momentum soon and started accelerating, Dhoni continued to guard the wicket. Initially, he took 37 balls for scoring the first 6 runs. Though he increased his pace later, the strike-rate remained around 50 which is extremely low in this form of cricket.

After completing his half-century, Dhoni seemed to be in a mood to accelerate. However, the wicketkeeper-batsman ended up being castled LBW by Behrendorff. The ball seemed to have pitched outside the line but with no DRS, Dhoni had to return back to the pavilion. A knock of 51(96) was certainly not going to impress anyone.

Twitter raised their voice against Dhoni’s slow knock. Many felt that if he had played lesser dot balls, the result of the match could’ve been different. Others made the comparison of his innings to a Test knock. Some of the people arrived to the conclusion that Dhoni is no longer the batsman he once was.

Here are some of the tweets in regards to Dhoni’s leisurely innings of 51(96)