MS Dhoni: Has India’s finisher run out of time at the top

MS Dhoni was afforded an opportunity to write another chapter in the story of India’s greatest finisher in the World Cup semi-final but his run out at the death could turn his work into an epitaph.

Such is Dhoni’s reputation that even arriving at the crease with India on 71 for 5 he was expected to carry the team to victory if he could bat through.

Dhoni was run out for 50 in a desperate attempt to get back on strike in the penultimate over and India fell 18 runs short of New Zealand’s effort of 239.

It speaks volumes to the kind of player that Dhoni is that his efforts are considered an abject failure by some and an indication that the man who turned 38 this week has no future in international cricket.

Dhoni is never afforded the luxury of being compared to his peers but instead is constantly asked to outdo himself, again and again and to take the blame whenever India fail.

His storied career to date means that even in the twilight of his career he still has plenty of fans in his corner and while there was a chorus of tweets from India fans decrying his performance at Old Trafford, still others questioned why he did not come in earlier to stop the rot.

In the circumstances Dhoni’s relatively sedate strike rate would have given plenty fans in blue cause for anxiety but by the end of his innings the former skipper had gathered fifty runs and scored faster than any of the top six could manage.

When Ravindra Jadeja was finding the fence alongside the man they used to call Captain Cool, it seemed as though the script was written for Dhoni to play his part in another famous win but as W.B Yeats wrote, ‘Things fall apart’. Jadeja holed out and Dhoni after slapping a gorgeous six over cover took a single to get to his fifty and in his haste to get back on strike came back for a second only to be run out by a direct hit from Martin Guptill.

Dhoni done?

In the aftermath of a shock defeat to New Zealand some fans and pundits now feel that it is time for India to begin life after MSD but even at the ripe old age of 38 they might be wrong in calling for him to quit the game.

It is really difficult to envision any current wicketkeeper-batsman, barring Jos Buttler, putting in a better shift than Dhoni did on Wednesday. The man slated to replace Dhoni was in India’s XI already. Rishabh Pant managed 32 off 62 balls. The young man is billed as Dhoni’s successor in white ball cricket and has already forced his way into the Test team ahead of Wriddhiman Saha.

Dhoni couldn’t get India over the line at Old Trafford but you would be a fool to think that he can’t still have an impact at next year’s T20 World Cup in Australia.

After India’s World Cup exit emotions will be high but hopefully sense prevails and the cricket fans the world over get to continue enjoying the brilliance of Dhoni.