Published: Mar 27, 2015, 01:59 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 27, 2015, 01:59 PM (IST)
India’s loss against Australia in the semi-final of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 has been making headline in the media. It dumped the defending champions out of the tournament as the fans and critics go bombarded the Indian team with criticism. In the same place, there were fans who chose to stick with Indian skipper MS Dhoni and his blue brigade.
As Australia bettered the Indian team and reached the finale of the prestigious tournament, the hostile Australian media was in festive mood and amassed praise on skipper Michael Clarke and his team. The Australian media piled more misery as they choose to criticise Dhoni’s tactics.
India were chasing a mammoth total of 329 but were bundled out for 233 in 46.5 overs. This gave the host team’s media to criticise for the opportunities that the Indian team failed to seize in the clash yesterday. “If India were going to have any chance of chasing down Australia’s target, it was going to come down to one of [MS] Dhoni or [Virat] Kohli to go the distance but neither managed to,” a report in Daily Telegraph said.
The report further added stating, “There was hope for India for as long as MS Dhoni was still at the crease, but in the semi-final of the World Cup the Indian skipper simply gave up. Dhoni, possibly playing in his last ODI (Dhoni made it clear that he will take a call on retirement after 2016 World Twenty20) after his shock retirement from Test cricket recently, top-scored for India with 65 before being run out by Glenn Maxwell. It was a superb throw, but Dhoni seemed to retire halfway down the pitch. There was no dive, no last-ditch attempt to make his ground, he simply ran straight down the tunnel. And with him vanished India’s last sliver of hope.”
Former England skipper Kevin Pietersen was also bemused with Dhoni as the latter didn’t took efforts to slide his bat to reach to his crease. “I don’t know what Dhoni was doing here — he could have made it. Absolutely he could have made it,” Pietersen was quoted in that report.
Another Australian daily, ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ disapproved Dhoni’s innings by calling it as ‘bizarre’. “Any questions over whether Australia’s total of seven for 328 would be enough were answered, although the nerves did not subside until Dhoni’s bizarre 65 was brought to an end. Dhoni mysteriously held back a final assault on the distant victory target and it was only then that he began to put the foot down, belting Shane Watson for two sixes in a row,” it reported.
“However, the India captain was run out brilliantly by Glenn Maxwell soon after and in keeping with the tone of his odd innings, Dhoni did not appear to put much effort into making his ground,” the report further said.
The Australian media added more salt to the cut by mentioning India’s substandard showing in the Test series and tri-series and said that the team will be now relaxed to finally leave for their homeland.
