Indian Cricket Fans Can Never Forgive MS Dhoni For What He Did In Dominica In 2011: Team India will take on West Indies in a 2-Test series starting July 12. The first Test match will be played at the Windsor Park in Dominica.
India returned to Dominica after 12 years. Only two members of the playing XI from 12 years ago at this venue are currently with the Indian team – Virat Kohli, who was then a young, upcoming, rising star, is now the senior batter in the last phase of his career, while Rahul Dravid, who was then in the last phase of his career, is now India’s head coach.
That was the third Test of the series and India won the series 1-0, having won the first Test in Kingston and drawn the next two. Except, India, led by MS Dhoni, decided to shake hands with the opposition to call the third Test a draw when they were, many believe, in line to win the third Test in Dominica.
This decision by MS Dhoni is brought up several times by fans who call the former India captain timid and bash him for his decision to throw away a big chance of another overseas Test victory, which in those days was rare.
The Dominica Test from 2011 is remembered for MS Dhoni infamously not going after the win with the bat and instead settling for a draw, though that ensured India won the Test series and no WTC points were at stake in those days.
India had been set a target of 180 runs. West Indies had scored 204 and 322 in the match while India in their first innings scored 347. So chasing 180 was still a difficult task as India’s chase started right before the Tea break after West Indies had tried hard to extend their batting innings and give less time to India to go after the chase. It wasn’t farfetched though in the days when T20 cricket was burgeoning and many Indian players in that team were playing in the IPL.
With a little over one session available to play, India started their chase of 180 and lost opener Abhinav Mukund on the first ball of the chase.
Then, after Tea, Murli Vijay and Rahul Dravid held fort but batted slowly and gave no indication that India were looking to go after the target, and instead, it was clear, that India were aiming to play out a draw, and take the series 1-0. Vijay and then Raina fell before the last Drinks break.
With only about one hour or so left in the play, India were 94/3 and needed 86 more runs to win. This was still chaseable as batters were equipped in chasing down similar asks in T20 cricket and were just coming off an IPL season. However, MS Dhoni decided to offer a handshake to the opposition and end the game in a draw, which the West Indies were happy to take and avoid a defeat.
Did MS Dhoni make a big mistake and threw away a chance to win a Test in West Indies?
In the post-match press conference, MS Dhoni explained his decision to not go for a win, settle for a draw and take the series. He said: “We were risking a series win going after the target, we realised that it was not worth going for it after those wickets, we gave it a go but we are happy with the series win.”
