The score was 267/5, India needed 71 from 31 balls. Hardik Pandya had just been dismissed and Kedar Jadhav walked out to join MS Dhoni. A dot ball was played out and the equation was simple – Virat Kohli’s boys had to score at over 14 runs per over to win the game. Dhoni was on 16 from 13.
When the innings ended, no more wickets had fallen, it was still 5 down. But the score read just 306, not even close to the target of 338 that India had set out to chase. In other words, Dhoni and Jadhav, two of the best finishers around at the moment, had scored a mere 39 runs from the last 30 balls. That is a run-rate of below 8 per over. Not exactly what you expect to see in the modern game.
Cricinfo
Dhoni finished with 42 not out from 31 balls while Jadhav made 12 not out from 13 balls. Now on paper Dhoni’s strike rate is above 130 and it seems he did a good job but in the death overs, Jadhav and he were more content on taking singles than going for the big shots. Yes, England bowled well, but there did not seem to be much intent on going for the big hits.
Now this is not a rant to go after them because one must remember India’s initial run rate was pretty slow at the start – only 28 runs came in the first 10. It took the likes of Rohit Sharma (102) and Virat Kohli (66) to create the base. Sadly Rishabh Pant could not capitalise with a 29-ball 32 and Pandya tried his best with 45 from 33 balls, but in the end it fell to Dhoni and Jadhav which proved to be too much for them.
Cricinfo
The batting in the last 5 overs while being torture for the Indian fan to watch, was also confusing to say the least. Yes, there was good bowling from England, but we were doing nothing to counter it. The experts were not amused as they took to Twitter to air their grievances:
Fans in general were not too happy either. Remember they had trolled Dhoni big time after his 52-ball 28 vs Afghanistan? He seemed to make it up with 56 not out in 61 balls vs West Indies, but now, along with Jadhav, became target practice for the fans:
Of course they should not be solely blamed for the defeat. After all, India never tried getting close to the required rate in the early or middle overs either. The middle order let the run-rate go out of reach and it was difficult to get back on track to begin with. Maybe some changes in the batting order are needed, who knows? It will be interesting to see what decisions Kohli and the management take before the next game vs Bangladesh on July 2. India need one point to make it to the semis and our last game is vs Sri Lanka on July 6.