MS Dhoni missed stumping: Veteran wicket-keeper batsman gets a reprieve as Shai Hope misses an easy stumping opportunity
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MS Dhoni and his woes against spin bowling continues as the Goddess of fortune smiled with the widest of grin upon him during the match against the Windies.
During the 34th match of the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 between India and West Indies at The Old Trafford in Manchester, Windies wicket-keeper Shai Hope missed the easiest of stumping opportunities one would ever get, to hand MS Dhoni a massive lifeline quite early on in his innings.
It all happened during the 34th over of the first innings after Indian skipper Virat Kohli, opted to bat in what looked like a good wicket to bat on. In the first delivery of the over, being bowled by the left-arm spinner- Fabien Allen, Dhoni, which is natural style of batting decided to charge down the track in front of the spinner.
Allen gave a decent enough flight to the delivery. The ball gripped off the surface as Dhoni missed it altogether to get stranded down the middle of the pitch bamboozled. In what should have been a regulation stumping, Shai Hope made an absolute blunder behind the stumps- not once but twice with all the time in the world.
He failed to grab the ball on the first occasion, and despite that had ample time to complete the formalities, had he remained a bit more calm. He eventually, managed to remove the bails, only with his left arm and to make it worse, even handed a run off Byes, to the Indian total.
India huffing and puffing
India were yet again off to a poor start, having lost Rohit Sharma due to a controversial decision by the on-field umpire. While KL Rahul and skipper Virat Kohli were on their way to build a big partnership, KL Rahul (48 off 64) yet again failed to convert a start into a big one.
The loss of Kohli (72 off 82) was yet another heavy blow, as India does not look in a good position to even cross the 300 mark. At the time of writing, Dhoni (36* off 51) was still at the crease alongside Hardik Pandya (37 off 33) with the Indian total at 242/5 after 47.3 overs.
