5 Dhoni moments from the India-New Zealand ODI series

#2 Batting woes – Struggling to get off the blocks

Dhoni struggled with the bat for the most part

Dhoni’s brilliant day behind the stumps at Ranchi did not really translate into his batting during India’s chase of 260. He came out to bat at No.4 to huge roars from his home crowd, at the fall of Kohli’s wicket. However, his turned out to be a laborious stay at the crease.

New Zealand’s spin trio of Sodhi, Santner and Devcich were able to strangle him with a fine display of tight bowling and dry up the runs on a very slow surface. His suffering at the crease, however, ended when he fell to a ball that seamed into his leg stump, from Jimmy Neesham. Dhoni walked back with an embarrassing 11 runs off 31 deliveries to his name.

This was the second time in the series that his troubles with the bat surfaced to deprive India of momentum during a chase. His recent struggles to get off to fluent starts were seen earlier as well.

In a similar scenario during the second ODI at Delhi, India had lost both their openers as well as Kohli early in their chase of 242. Dhoni walked in at the fall of Rahane and played as many as 37 dot balls in his innings of 39 off 65 balls. Though the target was always in sight if wickets were kept in hand and the situation didn’t require taking unnecessary risks, a better-paced innings would have served India better.

A brilliant return catch from Tim Southee off his own bowling dashed all hopes of Dhoni making up for his start, taking the game deep, and finishing it in his trademark fashion.