Reportedly former pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar believes india's was a great fightback, courtesy M.S. Dhoni and ravindra jadeja despite their top-order collapse as the Men in Blue fell just short of crossing the line against new zealand in the first semi-final of the ongoing World Cup. Meanwhile on Wednesday, india lost to new zealand by 18 runs at the Old Trafford to bow out of the competition.
Furthermore chasing 240, Indian batters were undone by Matt Henry's brilliant opening spell as he returned figures of 3/37. Jadeja (77) and Dhoni (50) shared a 116 run stand for the seventh wicket. Further in the end that proved to be not enough, especially after Dhoni was caught short of crease by a brilliant direct hit by Martin Guptill. Reportedly "It was a poor batting performance by the top five players. Rohit (Sharma) got a brilliant ball.
He said "The other batsmen also did not show much intent until Jadeja came in and played superbly. And so was Dhoni who kept india in the hunt” and also termed 37 year old Dhoni as legend. "Dhoni is an absolute legend. He is a great ambassador for the game. Till the time he was there, it looked like he would win the game for india. However, he was unfortunate and couldn't take india to the finals." He added "Indian fans should be proud of the way their team played in the World Cup”.
