Glenn Maxwell may have just dropped the series when he dropped MS Dhoni at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in the third ODI of the three-match series between India and Australia.

Exactly half way through the 17th over, Dhoni came out to the middle to bat at number 4 following Shikhar Dhawan's dismissal. Of his very first ball, Dhoni played an uppish cut shot to Maxwell standing at backward point. The ball went to the Aussie all-rounder to his left at a comfortable height, he caught the ball and in a moment it popped out and fell onto the ground.

MS Dhoni
MS Dhoni hits Nathan Lyon for a six over deep mid-wicket during the second ODI.Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images

It was a crucial juncture in the match as Marcus Stoinis had scalped Dhawan and getting Dhoni of the very next ball would have tilted the game in the host's favour. Dhoni has been slowly creeping back into form having scored a fifty in India's previous two games in the series. Although his knock in the opening match drew a lot of criticism for being slow, the wicketkeeper-batsman's innings in the last game gave Kohli a glimpse of the old Dhoni.

Dhoni scored an unbeaten 55 of 54 balls and was there till the end along with Dinesh Karthik to see India through to victory. Thus, picking Dhoni up when the score was 59 would have opened up India's inexperienced middle order and put Australia in a strong position to win the match, and hence the series.

The drop catch, under these circumstances, naturally irked fans on social media.