Sourav Ganguly criticises MS Dhoni for his slow innings while chasing during England vs India World Cup 2019 match

Sourav Ganguly criticises MS Dhoni for his ‘lack of intent’ innings vs England while chasing at Edgbaston in Birmingham

It’s done and dusted. England beat the formidable Indian side by 31 runs, in a match on which many South-Asian nations fans’ eyes were on, particularly Pakistan.

England had posted a good enough total of 337/7 on the back of a magnificent century by their opening batsman Jonny Bairstow (111 off 109) and a final dash by Ben Stokes (79 off 54).

In reply India got off to a really slow start, posting only 28/1 in the first 10 overs of the mandatory powerplay. But, skipper Virat Kohli (66 off 76) and Rohit Sharma (102 off 109) batted with quite a sensible and calculative approach to make sure that the team inched closer towards the target without further damage.

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But, it was MS Dhoni’s relatively slowish innings coming in at no. 6 that garnered widespread criticism and animosity amongst the fans and experts. They blamed MS Dhoni for his ‘lack of intent’ to go for the big hits when India required in the closing stages of the match.

Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly in fact lashed out at MS Dhoni and passed scathing comments on the veteran wicket-keeper batsman for his 41 run knock off 31 deliveries.

What did Ganguly comment?

While commentating during the final overs of the match, Ganguly came down heavily on Dhoni. He opined that a team cannot chase a total like 338 with as many as five wickets still in the bank. Hem in fact failed to understand the approach of both Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav (12 off 13) when the team required to go at 16 runs per over in the last five overs.

The duo in fact could only manage 39 runs in the final 30 balls, leaving everyone scratching their heads till the very end. He even questioned the team management as to whether anyone will question Dhoni on his innings today.

“Will there be questions asked in the dressing room, just what were you doing out there?”, said Ganguly.