Former Australia cricketer Dean Jones find it difficult to believe the criticism thrown towards MS Dhoni for his half-century in the series opener against Australia which India went on to lose by 34 runs on Saturday. Dhoni faced a lot of flak for his 96-ball 51 in a chase of 289 at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Australia went on to take a 1-0 lead in the three-ODI series with a 34-run win.

Jones defended Dhoni’s approach saying the former Indian skipper walked in at a time when his team was in a critical phase having lost three wickets inside four overs which required him to dig in and guide the team out of the nervy phase.

In his column for Times of India, Jones wrote, “I cannot believe how much criticism MS Dhoni has got about losing the game, and how the press and all the pundits in the world have gone after him. Do people actually not understand what it takes to come in when the team is four for three? Number one, you have got to stop the bleeding, and he did that. Number two, he got a shocking lbw decision. And Number 3, at the end of the game with around six overs to go, Australia were worried, mainly due to the efforts of Rohit Sharma and Dhoni.”

WATCH – Dhoni And Jadeja Sends Back Peter Handscomb

Rohit played a heroic knock of 133 off 129 and was out in the 46th over. Jones is also not happy at the criticism of Rohit’s fitness. Hw wrote that a batsman who batted for 46 over can’t be questioned for fitness. He feels that the Indian fans are just so hard, so critical.

Jones reckons India have to rein in Australian middle-order in order to draw level in the series at the Adelaide Oval. He further added, “What Virat needs to do is stop the Australian middle order; they have made sure they’ve got guys in the middle who play spin well, particularly (Peter) Handscomb.”

Former Australian batsman also praised Australia for their superb show especially that of young speedster Jhye Richardson whose 4/26 fetched him a player-of-the-match award on Saturday.