Pawan Negi and Navdeep Saini were involved in a match-winning 51-un partnership as Delhi overcame Jharkhand by two wickets in a thrilling second-semi-final contest of the Vijay Hazare Trophy in Bengaluru on Thursday.
Chasing 200, Delhi were in a spot of bother after being reduced them to 133/7 but young and inexperienced captain Ishan Kishan failed to capitalise on the opportunity letting Delhi escape away to a victory with the loss of just one more wicket.
With Delhi struggling at that stage after some fine bowling from spinner Shahbaz Nadeem and medium pacer Anand Singh, what Jharkhand needed most was the calm presence of a captain, who could marshal his troops. But with Kishan, who himself is very young and without much international experience, the Jharkhand team failed to take the opportunity and secure the victory.
Perhaps the presence of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who is also a Jharkhand player, could have helped them to a greater extent and also in taking important decisions during the course of the match.
Former Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh feels that the presence of MS Dhoni could have ultimately been the difference in the Jharkhand side, which lacked any proper experienced player.
Taking to social media site Twitter after Delhi’s victory, Harbhajan congratulated his once India teammate Gautam Gambhir and Delhi for making it to the finals. But at the same time also points out that Dhoni perhaps could have things different for Jharkhand.
“Congrats captain @GautamGambhir and Team Delhi for reaching #VijayHazare finals. Well done #pawanNegi But who knows @msdhoni presence could have been the difference. Team Jharkhand must have missed him today @BCCIdomestic,” said Bhajji in a tweet on Thursday.
Ishan Kishan would be proud after leading Jharkhand to the semi-finals but there were still certain decisions that left a lot desired from the skipper. The biggest of them was giving Shahbaz Nadeem just one over before the 29th over. On return, Nadeem immediately took two wickets, including that of Nitish Rana, who was set on the crease.
But with Dhoni choosing not to play, despite being asked to play in the domestic ODI championship by the selection committee, Ishan Kishan had to continue as the skipper.
Jharkhand’s batting also faltered in the final and again the presence of Dhoni in the batting order could have calmed things down for them and given them more confidence to play.
Earlier, despite the selection committee announcing that Dhoni would take part in the knockout stages of the tournament, the former Indian skipper refused to play citing that his sudden inclusion will spoil the settled team combination.
Image Source: Asian Age