Twitter petrified after MS Dhoni asks for match ball following ODI defeat

England beat India by a massive 8 wickets in the third ODI on Tuesday in Leeds and bagged the three-match one-day series 2-1. The series loss was the first bilateral series defeat under Virat Kohli with many players failing to step up.

On the television broadcast, however, it was a few seconds of post-match footage that set the Twitter ablaze. MS Dhoni was seen taking the match ball from the umpires while walking back to the pavilion that led viewers to believe the 37-year-old would announce his retirement from international cricket. Here's how Twitter reacted to the incident:-

During the second ODI against England on Saturday, Dhoni was booed by a section of the Indian fans in the stadium after he failed to accelerate during India’s chase of England’s 322/7. He managed to score 37 off 59 as India went onto lose by 86 runs.

On Tuesday, with batsmen falling in regular intervals at the other end, Dhoni ensured India remained stable from one end of the crease as he managed a 42-ball-66. However, with India losing, critics had once again focused only on the keeper instead of India’s middle order’s collective failure.

India would be playing the ICC Cricket World Cup in England next summer and even Indian chief selector MSK Prasad had gone on record in the last year to say MS Dhoni would be the team’s number one choice for his slot and behind the wickets. So, this could also simply be MS Dhoni taking memorabilia from what is likely to be his last bilateral series outing in England.

After the match, neither Virat Kohli nor Shardul Thakur, who attended the post-match press conference, had anything to say about the incident.