next_posts_link(); & previous_posts_link(); not working properly

I did this and its working as expected. Please close this question

<div class="post-content">

    <?php
    // set the "paged" parameter (use 'page' if the query is on a static front page)
    $paged = ( get_query_var( 'paged' ) ) ? get_query_var( 'paged' ) : 1;

    $the_query = new WP_Query( 'posts_per_page=5&post_type=blog&paged=' . $paged );
    if($the_query->have_posts()) {
        while($the_query->have_posts()) {
            $the_query->the_post();
            $link = get_permalink();
            echo "<div id='bl-post'>";

            echo "<div class="thumb">";
            echo "<a href=$link>";
            if(has_post_thumbnail()) {
                    the_post_thumbnail();
                }
            echo "</a>";
            echo "</div>";

                echo "<div class="cont">";
                echo "<h2 class="bl-post-title"><a href=$link>";
                the_title();
                echo "</a></h2>";
                echo "<p>";
                     $excerpt = get_the_excerpt();
                     echo string_limit_words($excerpt,30);                                  
                echo "</p>";
                echo "<a href=$link id='cont-read'>";
                _e('Read More','nss-framework');
                echo "</a>";
                echo "</div>";

            echo "</div>";
        }
            ?>
            <div class="clr"></div>
            <ul class="sl-navi">
                    <li>
                        <span><?php next_posts_link('Older', $the_query->max_num_pages); ?></span>
                    </li>
                    <li>
                        <span><?php previous_posts_link('Newer'); ?></span>
                    </li>
                </ul>
                <?php wp_reset_postdata(); ?>
            <?php
    }

    ?>

</div>