MS Dhoni not concerned about security despite crowd disruption

MS Dhoni not concerned about security despite crowd disruption: India began the much-awaited “Paytm Freedom Series” on a losing note. However, it was anticipated that India would keep the series alive with the 2nd T20I in Cuttack. But, in sharp contrast to the expectations, the second T20I turned out to be a one sided game as visitors South Africa easily snatched a victory and took an unassailable lead in the 3-match T20I series.

Surprisingly, the furious crowd of Cuttack took the centre stage and disrupted the game twice by throwing bottles inside the stadium as if the crushing defeat wasn’t enough for the day.

The disgraceful incident was not brought up in the post match conference but was raised in the subsequent press conference. This incident also raised questions about the safety precautions in the ground during matches. MS Dhoni expressed his thoughts in relation to the incident.

Dhoni in his regular composure said, “Frankly, from a safety point of view, I don’t think there was a very serious threat. A few of the powerful people from the crowd were good enough to throw the bottles inside the rope. So the umpires thought it was better that players go off the field for a while. The reaction of the crowd, you know, we didn’t play well, so at times you get reactions like this. It’s only the first bottle. After that they start throwing for fun. We shouldn’t read too much into it. I still remember we played in Vishakhapatnam once, we won the game very easily, and that time also a lot of bottles were thrown. It starts with the first bottle, and after that, you know, it is more fun for the spectators if they start doing it and following it.”

He also spoke about India’s meek surrender and was asked about the reason behind the dismal batting performance. He tried to justify his team’s twin losses saying, ” In the last game, we batted really well, but there were two areas we wanted to address. One was the run-outs and the other, losing wickets in pairs. Unfortunately, in this game, these were the two things that pushed us on to the back foot. There were two instances where we lost three wickets without almost not scoring any run. The wicket was slightly difficult to start on, and if you lose wickets like these it puts too much pressure on the others. At the end, we didn’t have many runs on the board. It was not (going to be) a very high scoring game, 140 would have been a very good score. It’s something that I think would have been a good score,

Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s place in the batting order and his role has been talked about a lot prior to the series. Ravi Shastri, leading into the series, had said that he would like to take some burden off his shoulders and entrust younger players with the role of ‘finisher.’

Dhoni said, “It’s slightly different in T20s, because it is a very short format. I feel personally that I use too much of brains in this format. It is very important that I also keep myself a little free and go and play my strokes. A lot of time when I go into bat, usually the 17th or the 16th over with four of five wickets down, I have that tendency of using my brain and thinking ‘let’s go to 130, that will be a good score’. And depending on that I play a little slow and then go for big strokes. I believe in this format I should come in and play the big shots irrespective of the situation.”

Dhoni feels that the best batsmen have broken down under pressure and have failed to do well during crunch situations. But, still wants to pass the mantle to somebody else as he knows he can’t be playing at that position forever.

Dhoni said also added, “One of the reasons I want to bat slightly up in the order is so that somebody else takes that responsibility of batting at five or six. Six is a crucial position. Till they are not exposed to that position, we won’t really know who is good in that position. Because in the coming years you need someone ready to do that job. It is something you need to have in your back-up plans.”