Virat Kohli hits back at those who targeted MS Dhoni for his slow knock

MS Dhoni, one man who gets the loudest cheer when he walks out to bat on any ground not only in India but around the world was booed last night at the Lord’s Cricket Ground. Even during the Indian Premier League (IPL) when a wicket goes down and the next man in is Dhoni, on the grounds where the home teams have a loyal fan base like RCB in Bangalore we hear a roar for the man. However, his batting didn’t impress those who had turned up at the Lord’s for the England vs India 2nd ODI.

Dhoni was in a situation where hitting the ball was not very easy and he knew most attempts to do that would end his stay in the middle. Though the Indian defeat looked inevitable he tried to take the game deep and reduce the margin. While doing that he defended the good balls and also denied taking singles as that would expose No.9 Kuldeep Yadav to the English strike bowlers.

He failed in his attempt to get the innings going after Suresh Raina and Hardik Pandya got out after sharing brief partnerships with him. Dhoni concluded his pedestrian knock of 37 from 59 balls and had a strike rate of 62. Towards the very end, it appeared as if the skipper Virat Kohli sent a message with the player carrying drinks. Dhoni then attempted a big shot against Liam Plunkett and holed out at deep mid-wicket.

People jump to conclusions

Team India was eventually bowled out for 236 and lost the match by 86 runs. Kohli was disappointed with the results but when Naseer Hussain made a mention to Dhoni’s innings in the post-match presentation he defended the veteran and hit back at those who used this as an opportunity to put the wicketkeeper-batsman down. “This comes up again and again when he is not able to play in the normal way he does,” said the India skipper “It’s very unfortunate people just jump to conclusions very quickly,” he added.

“When he does well, people call him the best finisher ever and when they don’t go well, they all pounce on him. We all have bad days in cricket and this was a bad one for everyone, not just him. Also, you want to take the innings deep; you don’t want to just lose by 160-170 runs, and he has the experience, but some days it just doesn’t come off.

“Other people jump to conclusions, but we don’t – we totally believe in him,” Kohli said.

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