#4 James Franklin – India vs New Zealand at Chennai, Sep 11, 2012
In the 2nd T20I of the New Zealand series, a quickfire 70 off 41 balls by Virat Kohli had lowered the asking rate to 7 runs per over before MS Dhoni hit the crease. What transpired in the course of the ensuing spells by Vettori, Oram and Franklin is something every Indian cricket enthusiast would wish to forget.
Instead of unleashing the punishing jabs and helicopters from his arsenal, Dhoni pushed for singles and sneaky twos to keep 13 runs required off the last over. James Franklin’s medium pace headed his way, Dhoni rotated the strike after hitting only one boundary. Yuvraj was bowled out off the very next delivery, and the new man in, Rohit Sharma could only fetch two doubles from the last two balls, thereby causing India’s final score to fall short off the Kiwis’ mark of 167 by a solitary run.
