cricket

Updated: Jan 13, 2019 12:54 IST

MS Dhoni might have scored his first ODI fifty since December 2017 at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Saturday, but former India pacer Ajit Agarkar feels that the former skipper’s scoring rate wasn’t upto the mark when it comes to playing the 50-over format. Interestingly, the scoreboard read 4/3 when Dhoni joined Rohit Sharma in the middle, but Agarkar feels playing 96 balls and scoring at 53.12 wasn’t the ideal scenario.

“Yes, tough situation to come in when you are three down with four runs on the board. And you could argue that the first 25-30 balls, you’ve not been here. But once you are set. I mean Rohit can get 288 all by himself. There has to be a support from the other end. And not from someone who is striking at 50 when he finishes after 100 balls. And, 100 balls are a lot of deliveries in one-day cricket.

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“You can argue for the first few deliveries because the pressure is on and you don’t want to throw your wicket. But eventually, you need to do what the team requires you to do. And if you are not doing it then you got to worry about whether the person is good enough to do it or not. Yes, he got a fifty but even then it was fifty off like 100 balls. That wasn’t helping Rohit at the other end,” he told ESPNCricinfo.

Agarkar went on to add that while Dhoni fans might argue that the batsman got a bad decision, the maximum amount of scoring was being done by Rohit.

“Dhoni fans might argue that he got a rough one otherwise he could have carried on. But it did not look like in that stage. It seemed that Rohit was doing the bulk of the work,” he said.