New Zealand captain Kane Williamson defends 'world class' MS Dhoni over India World Cup exit

Having turned 38 last week, Dhoni is unlikely to be a part of India's next World Cup campaign
AP

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson has defended India wicketkeeper MS Dhoni, after the veteran was criticised for slow scoring as his side crashed out of the Cricket World Cup.

Williamson’s New Zealand reached their second successive final with a dramatic 19-run win in a thrilling semi-final at Old Trafford that ran across two days because of bad weather.

Chasing 240, India were reduced to 5/3 and 92/6, before a seventh wicket partnership of 116 between Dhoni and Ravi Jadeja inspired hope of an unlikely comeback. Yet while Jadeja’s swashbuckling 77 came off just 59 balls, Dhoni was content to accumulate slowly, in a knock of 50 off 72, including just two boundaries.

That left India still needing 32 off the final 14 deliveries when Jadeja holed out to Williamson while trying to accelerate, and by the time Dhoni was run out brilliantly by Martin Guptill four balls later the game was as good as done.

Williamson's catch to remove Jadeja all-but booked New Zealand's final spot
AFP/Getty Images

Dhoni was criticised for a similar lack of aggression during the group stage defeat to England, but Williamson insisted that the 38-year-old, playing in what will surely be his final World Cup game, deserved to be included.

“He’s a world class player,” Williamson said. “Experience at this level and in these occasions is so important and his contribution today and yesterday, but throughout this campaign was extremely important.

“That partnership that he was involved in with Jadeja who came in and hit the ball better than anybody in both teams was very, very valuable.

“We've seen Dhoni finish games from those similar positions on a number of occasions. It was a tough surface so nothing promised but naturally to dismiss Dhoni in whatever fashion is extremely important.”

Williamson, by contrast, was lauded for his display, which included a crucial 67 with the bat and some outstanding tactics in the field.

In particular, the decision to bring star bowler Trent Boult back in the 48th over to break the Dhoni/Jadeja partnership, at the risk of exposing all-rounder James Neesham at the death, proved a masterstroke.

“I suppose you are feeling engaged in the game, so you are kind of watching the ball and you are sort of trying to move the field and that is the nature of the role as captain.” he said.

“Someone like Trent is obviously a world-class bowler for us. We were trying to use his death overs as well as we could to either (a) push the run rate up to a point that it would be more challenging and perhaps heading to a longer side in those later overs, or (b) trying to dismiss the guys batting at the time, Jadeja and Dhoni, who we know can hit the ball a long way and can win games from that position.

“So trying to use your resources slightly earlier was a good move. Obviously proved to be an important part of the match. But, you know, you never know who is going to pick up the wickets. In terms of the catches, it was trying to watch the ball and catch it.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in