Team India slowly suffocated to a crushing defeat by the ninth-ranked West Indies in the fourth ODI of the five-match series at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, Antigua. Despite restricting the hosts to a paltry score of 189/9 in 50 overs, the men in blue failed to get over the finishing line and lost the plot in the final overs.
With just 16 needed off last two overs, MS Dhoni who is widely hailed as one of the greatest finishers in the cricket world faltered at the very end leaving it to the lower order batsman to finish the job. Coming in to bat at No.5, Dhoni took 108 balls to complete his half-century at a strike rate of 46.30. This was the second slowest fifty overall by an Indian in ODI history. Sadagoppan Ramesh holds the record of scoring a fifty off the maximum number of balls (117) for India against Kenya in 1999.
After the loss, Dhoni’s take-it-to-the-last over tactics has been severely criticised by all the cricket pundits. Young pacer Kesrick Williams picked up Dhoni's wicket in the 49th over which turned the match in favour of the hosts as India missed out on a chance to seal the series.
Post-West Indies victory, the 35-year old was seen sitting in the Indian dressing room all by himself with a dejected look on his face and moist eyes. It shows This expression on Dhoni’s face clearly shows how much it the loss has hurt him personally after he failed to take the fulfil the expectations of his billions of fans.
Whereas, West Indies now have a real chance of making it 2-2 by winning the final ODI in Jamaica on 6th July.
