Between MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav, 31 deliveries yielded seven dots, 20 singles, three fours and a six. That was when 71 runs were required off 31 balls against England. Little wonder then that social media exploded with Dhoni bashing and conspiracy theories. The Indian Express takes stock.
Between MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav, 31 deliveries yielded seven dots, 20 singles, three fours and a six. That was when 71 runs were required off 31 balls against England. Little wonder then that social media exploded with Dhoni bashing and conspiracy theories. The Indian Express takes stock.
Waqar’s soul crushers
Waqar Younis led the attack with his cryptic tweet. “It’s not who you are.. What you do in life defines who you are.. Me not bothered if Pakistan gets to the semis or not but one thing is for sure.. Sportsmanship of few Champions got tested and they failed badly,” the former Pakistan fast bowler wrote.
Twitter users were quick to remind Younis of fellow legendary pacer Wasim Akram’s retelling of the Anil Kumble ten-wicket haul at Kotla. “Kumble had got nine wickets. Me & Waqar were batting. Waqar came to me and said ‘How about getting run out?’ so that Kumble does not get his 10th wicket,” Akram had tweeted. To his credit, Younis has always denied the story, shooting back with “I think age is catching up with Wasim bhai.”
Former Pakistan batsman Basit Ali, who had foreseen that India would tank, opined post-match that the Indian batsmen were on “picnic”. “Picnic banaayi hain, apni form acchi kari hain. Rohit ne sau kare kitne aaram se kare. Kohli ne aaram se kare. Ek Pandya hi tha jo bechara maare ja ra tha,” Ali said during a talk show. Fellow guest Tanvir Ahmed further added fuel. “Dono spinners aage kar rahe hain, peeche, off stump ke bahar. Aur kaptaan ek baar bhi unke paas nahi aaya.” Ali however was a fan of Rishabh Pant’s cameo. “Pehla match khela hai ussne. Pakistan ke senior players ko seekhna chahiye.”
Bakht for ICC probe
Did India lose to hosts England on purpose, so that they could scuttle Pakistan’s World Cup qualification hopes? Sparks flew and subtle hints were dropped on the dreaded match-fixing claims during discussion in Geo Super’s chat show titled ‘Sports Floor’, which had former Pakistan cricketers Sikander Bakht, Mohammad Younis and Abdul Razzaq as panelists. The show was a preview to Pakistan’s final World Cup league encounter against Bangladesh, but it quickly veered to India’s abysmal run chase and their inexplicable loss to England at Edgbaston.
The discussion began with this loaded question: “You’re chasing 338 to win and you score just 28 runs in the first 10 overs, how do you explain that.” Bakht interjected: Would they (India) have played in such a manner had this been a World Cup knockout match? The former Pakistan captain then suggested a probe into the India vs England match. “ICC should need to take a look at the way matches are conducted.” At this point, Younis joined the discussion.
“Their (Indian) commentators have hinted at it and it’s something that I have continually heard during my 12-year playing career. If it’s happened it’s wrong. Having said that this World Cup has been a roller-coaster ride for Pakistan and they need to take bulk of the blame for their current predicament.” Razzaq, Yousuf’s former team-mate then took it a step further: “Pata sabko hain lekin kehna hoi nahi chahta,” (Everyone know about it, but no one really wants to talk about it) in an obvious reference to fixing claims.
A bat and ballot game
As soon as the last ball was bowled, a poll went up on twitter: “Do you think India lost deliberately today?”
The poll was hosted by the Twitter verified page of ‘Siasat.pk’ for close to half a million followers. After 9000+ votes in 24 hours, the verdict was out. 86% believed that India lost deliberately. Predictable, seeing how the handle kept spamming the feeds with tweets like “Dhoni isn’t even trying. Taking singles, jogging around. Baffling!!!” and quoted Nasser Hussain and Sourav Ganguly.
For an account dedicated to Pakistani politics — if the name doesn’t give it away, the description reads, “Pakistan’s Biggest discussion forum on Politics, Latest Videos & Discussion around the clock” — Siasat.pk had a close eye on the proceedings at Edgbaston. But cricket wasn’t the only thing capturing their attention. Friday also saw heated debate on Dangal star Zaira Wasim quitting Bollywood.
Ganguly, Hussain think alike
Speaking of Sourav Ganguly and Naseer Hussain. The two strong-willed leaders who butted heads on field were united in their bafflement in the commentary box. Tasked to talk about the action in the home stretch, Ganguly didn’t have an explanation to Dhoni and Jadhav’s approach.
Singling out Pandya for his effort, Ganguly rued the slow ‘first ten and last six overs’ and got increasingly bewildered with every single taken. And when Hussain spoke in disbelief: “I’m completely baffled. What’s going on! This is not what India needed. They need runs. What are they doing?”, Ganguly’s response was poignant. “I don’t have an explanation for that. You asked me the question but I can’t explain these singles. You can’t be chasing 338 and still have five wickets in the end.”
Lineker calls own goal
The apparent lack of intent surprised Gary Lineker even. “Very strange end to this game. Was great until the last few overs,” he tweeted. The former England centre-forward, who also captained the Leicestershire School’s cricket team, had been following the match at Edgbaston right through, chipping in with tweets like, “Great stuff from Bairstow. All talk and plenty of action. Well played” and “Ah what a Bumrah!” A “strange end” to the game baffled Darren Gough also. “Well that was a strange end to what should’ve been a great game,” the ex-England quick posted on Twitter.
Another poll, same result
The Indian fans, growing more impatient with each slow innings, were in no mood to spare Dhoni.
A twitter poll by Yahoo India showed that 42 per cent believed that it was Dhoni’s batting that led India to its first defeat (15 per cent blamed the orange jersey as well). “Live from Birmingham: Dhoni & Jadhav have just walked out to resume their innings on 2nd day of the test match,” read a tweet.
Trending hashtag #Dhoni intentDebate hinted at the outrage, and even die-hard fans seemed to have felt the pinch. “sorry but I have to say as a fan that u should get retire , I am ur big fan but I am not able to watch u struggling. Baki kedar bhai fxxxk off.”
Bhupathi’s cross-court defence
Having had enough of the furore, Indian tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi jumped in. “Reading what the arm chair experts say on Twitter about the game having never played professional sport under pressure is as entertaining as watching a tough run chase.”
Support came from across the border too. During a panel discussion, former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif defended Dhoni. “Dhoni played like this against Afghanistan and West Indies also. It’s not the first time he played like this. Why are they asking questions now,” Latif said, adding: “Pandya had the game. People are wrongly accusing Dhoni. Asking-rate was hovering around 13, when he came. When Pandya was playing, he was aggressive till the 40th over.
After 40 overs, an extra fielder was allowed outside the circle, which restricted Pandya’s hitting. Also, he tried to cut slower deliveries from Jofra Archer, which was a wrong shot selection. Dhoni builds his innings, he doesn’t score 13-15 runs per over.”
Overrated run-rate
Another hypothesis floating around was that Dhoni was preserving wickets to help India’s net run rate. Former New Zealand coach Mike Hesson shut down one such thread. “Net Run Rate has nothing to do with losing wickets,” tweeted Hesson. Not entirely true, since “In the event of a team being all out in less than its full quota of overs, the calculation of its net run-rate shall be based on the full quota of overs to which it would have been entitled and not on the number of overs in which the team was dismissed.”
But if run rate was a priority, Dhoni would have gone for more runs instead of trying to prevent a possible but improbabale calamity of losing five wickets in less than four overs.
And anyway, as the ICC rulebook states, the number of wins will be the first method of splitting teams on the same points.
Waqar’s soul crushers
Waqar Younis led the attack with his cryptic tweet. “It’s not who you are.. What you do in life defines who you are.. Me not bothered if Pakistan gets to the semis or not but one thing is for sure.. Sportsmanship of few Champions got tested and they failed badly,” the former Pakistan fast bowler wrote.
Twitter users were quick to remind Younis of fellow legendary pacer Wasim Akram’s retelling of the Anil Kumble ten-wicket haul at Kotla. “Kumble had got nine wickets. Me & Waqar were batting. Waqar came to me and said ‘How about getting run out?’ so that Kumble does not get his 10th wicket,” Akram had tweeted. To his credit, Younis has always denied the story, shooting back with “I think age is catching up with Wasim bhai.”
Former Pakistan batsman Basit Ali, who had foreseen that India would tank, opined post-match that the Indian batsmen were on “picnic”. “Picnic banaayi hain, apni form acchi kari hain. Rohit ne sau kare kitne aaram se kare. Kohli ne aaram se kare. Ek Pandya hi tha jo bechara maare ja ra tha,” Ali said during a talk show. Fellow guest Tanvir Ahmed further added fuel. “Dono spinners aage kar rahe hain, peeche, off stump ke bahar. Aur kaptaan ek baar bhi unke paas nahi aaya.” Ali however was a fan of Rishabh Pant’s cameo. “Pehla match khela hai ussne. Pakistan ke senior players ko seekhna chahiye.”
Bakht for ICC probe
Did India lose to hosts England on purpose, so that they could scuttle Pakistan’s World Cup qualification hopes? Sparks flew and subtle hints were dropped on the dreaded match-fixing claims during discussion in Geo Super’s chat show titled ‘Sports Floor’, which had former Pakistan cricketers Sikander Bakht, Mohammad Younis and Abdul Razzaq as panelists. The show was a preview to Pakistan’s final World Cup league encounter against Bangladesh, but it quickly veered to India’s abysmal run chase and their inexplicable loss to England at Edgbaston.
The discussion began with this loaded question: “You’re chasing 338 to win and you score just 28 runs in the first 10 overs, how do you explain that.” Bakht interjected: Would they (India) have played in such a manner had this been a World Cup knockout match? The former Pakistan captain then suggested a probe into the India vs England match. “ICC should need to take a look at the way matches are conducted.” At this point, Younis joined the discussion.
“Their (Indian) commentators have hinted at it and it’s something that I have continually heard during my 12-year playing career. If it’s happened it’s wrong. Having said that this World Cup has been a roller-coaster ride for Pakistan and they need to take bulk of the blame for their current predicament.” Razzaq, Yousuf’s former team-mate then took it a step further: “Pata sabko hain lekin kehna hoi nahi chahta,” (Everyone know about it, but no one really wants to talk about it) in an obvious reference to fixing claims.
A bat and ballot game
As soon as the last ball was bowled, a poll went up on twitter: “Do you think India lost deliberately today?”
The poll was hosted by the Twitter verified page of ‘Siasat.pk’ for close to half a million followers. After 9000+ votes in 24 hours, the verdict was out. 86% believed that India lost deliberately. Predictable, seeing how the handle kept spamming the feeds with tweets like “Dhoni isn’t even trying. Taking singles, jogging around. Baffling!!!” and quoted Nasser Hussain and Sourav Ganguly.
For an account dedicated to Pakistani politics — if the name doesn’t give it away, the description reads, “Pakistan’s Biggest discussion forum on Politics, Latest Videos & Discussion around the clock” — Siasat.pk had a close eye on the proceedings at Edgbaston. But cricket wasn’t the only thing capturing their attention. Friday also saw heated debate on Dangal star Zaira Wasim quitting Bollywood.
Ganguly, Hussain think alike
Speaking of Sourav Ganguly and Naseer Hussain. The two strong-willed leaders who butted heads on field were united in their bafflement in the commentary box. Tasked to talk about the action in the home stretch, Ganguly didn’t have an explanation to Dhoni and Jadhav’s approach.
Singling out Pandya for his effort, Ganguly rued the slow ‘first ten and last six overs’ and got increasingly bewildered with every single taken. And when Hussain spoke in disbelief: “I’m completely baffled. What’s going on! This is not what India needed. They need runs. What are they doing?”, Ganguly’s response was poignant. “I don’t have an explanation for that. You asked me the question but I can’t explain these singles. You can’t be chasing 338 and still have five wickets in the end.”
Lineker calls own goal
The apparent lack of intent surprised Gary Lineker even. “Very strange end to this game. Was great until the last few overs,” he tweeted. The former England centre-forward, who also captained the Leicestershire School’s cricket team, had been following the match at Edgbaston right through, chipping in with tweets like, “Great stuff from Bairstow. All talk and plenty of action. Well played” and “Ah what a Bumrah!” A “strange end” to the game baffled Darren Gough also. “Well that was a strange end to what should’ve been a great game,” the ex-England quick posted on Twitter.
Another poll, same result
The Indian fans, growing more impatient with each slow innings, were in no mood to spare Dhoni.
A twitter poll by Yahoo India showed that 42 per cent believed that it was Dhoni’s batting that led India to its first defeat (15 per cent blamed the orange jersey as well). “Live from Birmingham: Dhoni & Jadhav have just walked out to resume their innings on 2nd day of the test match,” read a tweet.
Trending hashtag #Dhoni intentDebate hinted at the outrage, and even die-hard fans seemed to have felt the pinch. “sorry but I have to say as a fan that u should get retire , I am ur big fan but I am not able to watch u struggling. Baki kedar bhai fxxxk off.”
Bhupathi’s cross-court defence
Having had enough of the furore, Indian tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi jumped in. “Reading what the arm chair experts say on Twitter about the game having never played professional sport under pressure is as entertaining as watching a tough run chase.”
Support came from across the border too. During a panel discussion, former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif defended Dhoni. “Dhoni played like this against Afghanistan and West Indies also. It’s not the first time he played like this. Why are they asking questions now,” Latif said, adding: “Pandya had the game. People are wrongly accusing Dhoni. Asking-rate was hovering around 13, when he came. When Pandya was playing, he was aggressive till the 40th over.
After 40 overs, an extra fielder was allowed outside the circle, which restricted Pandya’s hitting. Also, he tried to cut slower deliveries from Jofra Archer, which was a wrong shot selection. Dhoni builds his innings, he doesn’t score 13-15 runs per over.”
Overrated run-rate
Another hypothesis floating around was that Dhoni was preserving wickets to help India’s net run rate. Former New Zealand coach Mike Hesson shut down one such thread. “Net Run Rate has nothing to do with losing wickets,” tweeted Hesson. Not entirely true, since “In the event of a team being all out in less than its full quota of overs, the calculation of its net run-rate shall be based on the full quota of overs to which it would have been entitled and not on the number of overs in which the team was dismissed.”
But if run rate was a priority, Dhoni would have gone for more runs instead of trying to prevent a possible but improbabale calamity of losing five wickets in less than four overs.
And anyway, as the ICC rulebook states, the number of wins will be the first method of splitting teams on the same points.