Dinesh Karthik is facing lot of criticisms after he denied taking a single during the last over of the third T20I between India and New Zealand. India lost the third T20I against New Zealand by just 4 runs which cost them losing the 3-match series as well. Dinesh Karthik, who denied single in the pressure-filled final over to keep strike, faced a lot of criticisms by cricket fans on social media, and cricketers Harbhajan Singh and Sanjay Manjrekar also condemned his act.
While appreciating Karthik’s batting in the end, Sanjay felt that it was a big mistake to deny the single. “Brilliant hitting by DK but small mistakes have a big effect on the result in T20s. Was a mistake to not take that single with Krunal at the other end”, he wrote on Twitter.
Brilliant hitting by DK but small mistakes have a big effect on the result in T20s. Was a mistake to not take that single with Krunal at the other end.#IndVsNZ
— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) February 10, 2019
Harbhajan also felt that Dinesh Karthik’s mistake could have cost the victory in the match. “This last T20I could have gone either way and any team could have won but a little mistake from Dinesh Karthik that he did not take that single and maybe we could have won this game too,” Harbhajan said on Sports Tak.
Dinesh Karthik rejected to take a single during the final over of Tim Southee, in which India needed 16 runs to bag victory. Dinesh sent Krunal back to the non-striker’s end after the latter had almost completed running for single. Karthik decided to take the strike to himself when 14 were needed off 3 balls.
Harbhajan felt that Karthik should have realised that it was Tim Southee on the other end while looking to finish the game. “Today’s match could have gone either way, it was a little mistake from Dinesh Karthik. This tag of finisher that he has got, he did make us win a match against Bangladesh but there [Soumya] Sarkar was bowling and not [Tim] Southee. It is good to have faith in oneself but that much confidence should also be shown in the player on the other side, when he was playing just as good.
Harbhajan also felt that Krunal Pandya could have bagged the victory runs for India. “Somewhere I felt Krunal Pandya could have tried, he had got 18-19 runs in the previous over from Southee. So if that one mistake would not have been made, may be the result of the match and the series would have been different”, the spinner further said.