Dhoni booed at Lord’s but skipper Kohli cool
LONDON: In the end it proved to be a bizarre innings from India in the second one-day game at Lord’s as they didn’t as much as display they were making an effort of going for the target of 322.
The in-form Rohit Sharma played a shot which hinted at complacency, while Mahendra Singh Dhoni waited too long to go for his big shots, and ended up becoming a target of boos from the crowd when he played a series of dot balls in a Liam Plunkett over, the 46th of the innings.
The crowd reaction marred a day when he had achieved a couple of milestones — becoming the fourth Indian to get to 10,000 runs and also the fourth wicketkeeper to take 300 catches in ODIS.
Asked about the strange innings of Dhoni, where he got 59-ball 37 when the required run rate had touched 27, leg-spin bowler Yuzvendra Chahal said: “… Because later on there were only me, Siddarth Kaul and Kuldeep Yadav, so it wasn’t like 2-3 batsmen were remaining. I think throughout the series Dhoni hasn’t batted, so this was a chance to get a knock. If he had hit a shot and gotten out, maybe we couldn’t have batted all 50 overs.”
In his post-match comments to the official broadcaster, India skipper Virat Kohli defended Dhoni saying every player had a bad day.
“This thing comes up again and again, it’s unfortunate when people jump to conclusions. We all have bad days, today was a bad day for everyone. The idea was to take the innings deep and he’s got the experience. Some days it just doesn’t come off,” said Kohli.
According to Chahal, who was a rare Indian player to come out unscathed from the game with figures of 10-0-43-1, the wicket of Virat Kohli was the turning point of the game.
Kohli and Suresh Raina tried to revive the innings after India lost three wickets for 60, but the India skipper fell at the total of 140, for a 56-ball 45.
‘KOHLI’S WICKET TURNING POINT’
“I think the turning point was the wicket of Virat Kohli, because a good partnership was going on. When you chase 322, you need wickets in the end. I also think their spinners bowled well,” said Chahal.