England all-rounder Ben Stokes stirred controversy when he questioned MS Dhoni’s intent during India’s World Cup game against England. However, West Indies great Michael Holding has rubbished all those claims saying Dhoni’s face showed how much he wanted to win.
It was the game at Birmingham where England defeated India comprehensively by 31 runs. The Men In Blues failed to chase England’s massive score of 337 for 7 during the mega event. MS Dhoni remained unbeaten on 42 off 31 balls but most of the runs came in the last over when the contest was over.
Ben Stokes, in his new book ‘On Fire’, wrote that there was no intent from MS Dhoni during that game. Furthermore, Ben Stokes also called out Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s tactic in the opening overs mystifying.
Michael Holding rubbishes Ben Stokes’s comments on Dhoni
“…there was little or no intent from him (Dhoni) or his partner Kedar Jadhav. To me, while victory is still possible you always go for broke,” Stokes wrote in his soon-to-be-published book.
However, one of the respected voices of the game, Michael Holding didn’t agree with Ben Stokes’ comment on Dhoni. Saying that people write anything in the books these days, the cricketer-turned commentator said that MS Dhoni’s facial expression proved how much he wanted to win the game for India.
“Well, people will write anything in books these days, because people are a lot more free with their opinions and when they are writing books, they need to be making headlines at times,” the pace ace said in an interview on Youtube.
“It wasn’t the game that India had to win, but I don’t think anyone can say that was a team tactic to lose the game.
“I watched that game and it appeared to me as if India weren’t putting up their 100%, but I realized it wasn’t the case when the expression on MS Dhoni’s face told me that he desperately wanted to win, so I don’t think it was a team decision to not try to win,” Holding added.
However, Michael Holding, in the end, mentioned that India didn’t go with the same intensity as they would have gone for a must-win match. The Men in Blues eventually bowed from out from event losing to New Zealand in a rain-marred semifinal.
