Why Dhoni's Criticism Is Unnecessary

Indian fans were left heartbroken after the Indian men's cricket team lost the World Cup semi-finals to New Zealand. The match which was seemingly lost in the first ten overs went to the wire thanks to some great batting by M.S. Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja. However, their efforts were not enough to get us over the line. This World Cup defeat has deeply hurt the fans.

India was no doubt the most powerful team in this World Cup. They were the table toppers and lost just a single match to England. The defeat was also not a case of us playing poor, but England playing much better. Apart from the Afghanistan match, the Indian team won all the games handsomely. They seem to be in great form going into the semis. Top Order was firing, the middle order was fine with Pandya, Dhoni and Pant playing well, bowling was firing all cylinders. But all it required was one bad day, and the dream of repeating the heroics of 1983 and 2011 was over.

India seemed to be in a great position after the end of the first innings. A target of 240 was below par. However, thanks to some brilliant and attacking captaincy by Kane Williamson, India were 5/3. After that, we were playing catch up, the whole time. The match was lost in the first ten overs and not in the 48th over. That's why the criticism for M.S. Dhoni is uncalled. Many people are saying that Dhoni played too slowly in the beginning and put too much pressure on Jadeja in the end. Both reasons are wrong.

When Dhoni came into bat, the score was 71/5. Mitchell Santner was bowling brilliantly and run scoring was hard, even for Pandya. At that stage, we couldn't afford to lose another wicket. So Dhoni perfectly played the situation. Also, Dhoni and Jadeja were the last recognised batsman. There was no one to come after them. One more wicket and the game was over. So, Dhoni might have decided that it was no good taking the risk from both ends. Also, Jadeja was hitting the ball brilliantly. So it was a natural choice that the big hits have to come from him. That's why even when Jadeja got out, the equation was reduced to 25 runs from 11 balls, which was challenging but not impossible. However, it was not to be, and Dhoni was run out.

India had a massive chance of winning this world cup. But Murphy's law caught up with them. Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong. Despite all of this, we as fans should be proud of the way, the boys played. They gave everything. Sometimes, it is not meant to be. We, as fans will not lose hope. We believe in our team and are proud of them.