Dhoni’s batting position baffles Tendulkar, Ganguly

TIL Desk Sports/ Batting legend Sachin Tendulkar and former India captain Sourav Ganguly were left baffled when M.S. Dhoni came out to bat at No.5 in India’s 18-run semifinal defeat to New Zealand at the World Cup on Wednesday.

While Ganguly said during commentary that he was surprised with Dhoni not being sent to bat at his usual position, Tendulkar went on to say the former India skipper batting at No.5 would have made a difference. In the rain-hit semifinal played over two days, New Zealand scored 239/8 in 50 overs after opting to bat. Kane Williamson (67) and Ross Taylor (74) formed the bedrock of their innings.

In reply, India lost four top order batsmen for just 24 runs inside 10 overs before Ravindra Jadeja (77) and Dhoni (50) shared a 116-run seventh wicket stand to raise hopes for an unlikely victory. However, it wasn’t enough in the end as India fell short by 18 runs.

The talking point was Dinesh Karthik coming in to bat ahead of Dhoni at No.5. Karthik fell cheaply but still there were no signs of India’s 2011 World Cup winning captain as all-rounder Hardik Pandya walked in. Dhoni eventually came out to bat at No.7. “In a crunch moment like this you would think of promoting Dhoni and control the game. Towards the end he was talking to Jadeja and controlling the proceedings. Very smartly he was rotating the strike.