WATCH | MS Dhoni immaculate match-saving dive turns the game in India's favour

WATCH | MS Dhoni immaculate match-saving dive turns the game in India's favour

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BCCI

While MS Dhoni's role in Indian team has raised more questions than ever, he has gone about his wicket-keeping job as efficiently as possible. Yesterday, as the match was evenly poised in the penultimate over, Dhoni dived far to his left to save a boundary which eased the pressure on the bowlers.

Dhoni’s T20 form - to be particular his batting of late - has come under a lot of flak and even VVS Laxman and Ajit Agarkar, Dhoni’s erstwhile teammates, asked him to retire from the shortest format of the game. During his 49-run innings in the Rajkot T20I, where India were chasing 197 on a flat pitch, the fluency that had made Dhoni a threatening finisher was lacking, to say the least.  

However, the 35-year-old still has more than enough left in the tank to keep up with the physical demands of the limited-overs cricket due to his unbelievable glove work, that keeps him heads and shoulders over any of his compatriots even at the age of 36. Yesterday, when India were in a precarious position, where the game could have swung in any direction, Dhoni brought his brain and wicket-keeping abilities to the fore to literally save the game for India.

In the penultimate over, the visitors were in search of 24 runs from 9 balls, Jasprit Bumrah bowled a down-the-leg back of length delivery to Tom Bruce, but that went horribly wrong. A four and wide would have closed the door for the hosts there, and realizing that, Dhoni made a run for the ball even before it had crossed the batsman and dived to his far left to save three runs for his team. The Kiwis ended up losing the game by six runs which could easily have been turned around into a victory had it not been for the exploits of the former Indian captain.

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