Fans erupt over India star's big 'slap to the haters'
Cricket fans have lit up the internet to toast MS Dhoni after the India veteran’s latest heroics clinched the ODI series against Australia.
Dhoni consigned Australia to yet another series defeat, delivering a spectacular knock to lead India to a dramatic seven-wicket victory at the MCG.
Set 231 to win Friday’s decider, India chased their target with four balls to spare to claim a 2-1 series victory and cap off a summer of unprecedented triumph.
Superstar veteran Dhoni again steered India to victory, scoring an unbeaten 87 off 114 balls – his third fifty from as many games – to repeat his match-winning heroics in Adelaide.
Fans hailed the legendary wicket for his astonishing feat of consistency how emphatically he had silenced the many critics back home.
51 in Sydney
55* in Adelaide
87* in Melbourne@msdhoni is the Player of the Series! #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/VBdzXt9MsE— ICC (@ICC) January 18, 2019
Putting it out there yet again! #Dhoni #AusvInd #AUSvIND https://t.co/4wyCRxyDmV
— Namrata Roy (@namrata751997) January 18, 2019
Take a Moment and laugh at Dhoni Haters..
Maahi😍#Dhoni#BeliveInDhoni— BEING ADHARV SALMANIAC (@iBeingAdharv) January 18, 2019
And rightly, Dhoni gets the PLAYER OF THE SERIES! so to all the people who were tweeting against him, hope you all got the answers! 🎤drop. #AUSvIND #Dhoni https://t.co/7aZ7N8eag0
— Dev (@ParokaDev) January 18, 2019
Dhoni gives a tight slap to the haters.Even in this inning also people think that he bat slowly but dhoni know the situation very well and he is well aware of his ability. What an inning 😎🙏🙌😍.#AUSvIND #Dhoni
— Ketul Patel (@KetulPa02305453) January 18, 2019
Trending like a boss !! King 👑 "Mahendra Singh Dhoni" !! @msdhoni
— Agnisha (@agnisha12) January 18, 2019
Msd ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Player of the series 😋😋😋❤️❤️
Shuting his critics by his super-performance.@ChennaiIPL @BCCI #dhoni #INDvsAUS #AUSvIND #Kohli— D H I R E N D R A (@iamdhiren7) January 18, 2019
Hello haters 🤣🤣 player of the series 😝#Dhoni #INDvsAUS
— DUMB TWEETS 🗯 (@DumbFight) January 18, 2019
Three back to back fifties for MS Dhoni
And all three of them comes while finishing
Take A Bow @msdhoni
Mahi at his best
A slap to the haters face#INDvsAUS #INDvAUS #AUSvsIND #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/DwkVg2KcXh— Kishan Kumar (@iamkishank) January 18, 2019
In a gripping finish, Dhoni was dropped on 74 by Aaron Finch at mid-off, then partner Kedar Jadhav (61 not out) barely survived a run-out attempt at the non-striker’s end.
Jadhav then scored the winning runs to the jubilation of a crowd of 53,603 dominated by Indian fans who chanted Dhoni’s name.
It is Australia’s seventh straight ODI series defeat, extending a two-year winless streak that has alarm bells ringing for the team’s World Cup title defence.
Dhoni and Virat Kohli (46) were both able to capitalise on Australia’s poor fielding and questionable use of the Decision Review System (DRS).
Dhoni survived being out for a golden duck to Marcus Stoinis when Glenn Maxwell dropped a straightforward chance at point, while replays showed Finch should have reviewed a caught-behind opportunity when Dhoni was on 34.
Kohli was dropped by Peter Handscomb at second slip on 10 and survived a run-out opportunity on 32.
Much of the post-mortem however is bound to focus on Australia’s batting.
Openers Finch and Alex Carey again failed to produce runs while Shaun Marsh (39), Usman Khawaja (34) and Maxwell (26) were unable to build on promising starts, forcing Handscomb (58) to fight a lone hand with the tail.
Legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal led the way for India, celebrating his ODI recall at the expense of mystery spinner Kuldeep Yadav with career-best figures of 6-42.
Sensing opportunity in overcast conditions which caused a brief rain delay, Kohli reaped immediate rewards after winning the toss and opting to bowl first.
Both Carey and Finch fell cheaply to swing king Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the latter trapped lbw on 14 to cap off a miserable summer across all three formats.
Chahal then struck twice in his first over to remove the in-form Marsh and Khawaja, who had combined for a 73-run partnership.
Maxwell came to the crease in the 30th over – the earliest Australia’s No.7 had been required for the series – but soon fell to Mohammed Shami, squeezing an ill-judged pull shot to a brilliantly diving Bhuvneshwar at deep fine leg.