India suffered a surprising defeat against New Zealand in the semi-final of World Cup 2019 after failing to chase down a target of 240. The way team India bowled, the Men in Blue seemed to be favourite to chase down the target but Matt Henry and Trent Boult scalped three early wickets to bring India to their knees.
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Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli were back in the pavilion at the score of five. Many expected that team management would send MS Dhoni at number four after the dismissal of Kohli but he came out to bat at number seven.
While many have criticised Ravi Shastri for delaying Dhoni’s arrival at the crease, a report in DNA suggests that it was Sanjay Bangar who took the decision to send Dhoni late. Bangar is the assistant coach of the side. It is to be noted that his role is already under the scanner and it is likely that BCCI might not renew his contract this time.
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After Men in Blue lost two early wickets, the situation was ideal for someone like Dhoni to come out and block deliveries, to stop the fall of wickets. Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya did the small job but both of them were dismissed while playing big shots.
Had Dhoni been out with Rishabh and Pandya, the things could have been different. Though, in between, Ravindra Jadeja did raise hopes for team India after playing a knock of 77 off 59.
The match was down to last two overs, with team India needing 31 runs from 12 deliveries. Dhoni hit first ball of 49th over for a six but was run-out on the next delivery, that ended the hopes of team India.
In the end, Virat Kohli and co scored 221, falling short by a margin of 18 runs.
Post the defeat, questions have been raised on team’s coaching staff and it looks set to be removed post the West Indies tour. For now, all the coaches are set to tour West Indies as the members were given an extension earlier.
BCCI will soon advertise for the post soon like has been the case on past two occasions.