New Delhi: It is safe to call Glenn Maxwell the bunny of Yuzvendra Chahal as the Indian leggie dismissed him for the third time in a row, with MS Dhoni playing a crucial part in at least two of those.
Maxwell was stumped off Chahal on Sunday at Indore, following the same script of Kolkata. Chahal provoked Maxwell with a loopy leg spinner and Maxwell charged down the ground only to play all around it.
However, this time around MS Dhoni had more to do than just whip the bails off in a flash. The former Indian captain was seen adjusting the field when Chahal was at the top of his mark. Knowing Maxwell’s fondness of playing the cross-batted shot, Dhoni asked the square leg and mid-wicket fielders to close the gap between them, pushed the short fine-leg into deeper and placed the third man a lot squarer.
Maxwell actually had no option but to hit straight or over extra cover, he tried to do just that but Chahal was also up to the mark, he pushed the ball wide, out of Maxwell’s reach and Dhoni did the rest behind the stumps.
It was an important wicket in the context of the game as Australia were sitting comfortable at 243 for 3, eyeing a big total. After Maxwell’s dismissal, the Australian innings did not take flight and was restricted to 294, which India chased down with 5 wickets in hand.
Interestingly, Dhoni had a big role to play in getting Maxwell in the second ODI at Kolkata also. Fresh from a couple of sixes off Kuldeep, Maxwell was eyeing something similar off Chahal. But he could not the reach the pitch of the ball, Dhoni flung towards his left and uprooted the stumps with a dive to send him back to the pavilion.