M.S. Dhoni has acknowledged that his finishing abilities are on the wane after India beat New Zealand by seven wickets in the third ODI, riding on Virat Kohli’s sterling century.
Kohli’s unbeaten 154 drove India to its 286-run target as the host took a 2-1 lead in the five-match series.
Kohli and Dhoni, who scored 80, were involved in a 151-run third-wicket partnership that set up the comprehensive win.
However Dhoni, who promoted himself to No. 4 in the batting order, departed in the 36th over, leaving Kohli and Manish Pandey to get 94 more runs.
“To some extent, I am losing an ability to freely rotate in the middle, so I have decided to bat up and let the others finish,” said Dhoni.
Once regarded as one of the best finishers in limited-overs cricket, Dhoni has recently found it difficult to bat at his usual No. 6 position.
His laboured knock failed to take India over the line in the previous game in New Delhi, one of the few instances when the wicketkeeper-batsman has faltered while chasing.
“But I know I should still look for the big shots. Once you get 15-20 runs, you get into the groove. There were points in the middle where I had to pull myself from playing big shots,” he said.
On Kohli, the ODI skipper said, “He is somebody who has learnt a lot and is somebody who knows his strengths really well. It’s very difficult to say what the top level is in cricket, but Kohli has done India proud.”
Surprise package On part-time spinner Kedar Jadhav, who has built a reputation of getting big wickets at crucial junctures, Dhoni said, “I have no clue how he gets wickets. It’s important to have one in the top five to bowl a few, especially, with left-handers in the opposition with him being an off-spinner.”
New Zealand captain Kane Williamson said, “Obviously frustrating to lose those wickets in the middle in a clump, we were probably looking at a bit more at that stage. But the lower-order performed really well. James Neesham and Matt Henry were outstanding.”
Neesham felt his team was simply outdone by the brilliance of Kohli and Dhoni.
“I think we fought pretty hard with the bat in the first innings to get in the end what was probably a slightly below-par total. “To be fair, I don’t think we bowled that bad in the second half,” said Neesham referring to Kohli being dropped by Ross Taylor while he was batting on 6.
“The way Virat and MS batted was outstanding. When you are dealing with some of the best chasers in the history of the game, you got to have a bit of luck that goes your way. We had a couple of things that did not go our way,” he added.
India squad unchanged Spinners R. Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, and fast bowler Mohammed Shami have been rested once again as India announced a 14-man unchanged squad for the remaining two ODIs.
