Former Pakistan batsman Basit Ali has lashed out at Team India’s batsmen for their slow show against England in the ICC World Cup 2019 match at Edgbaston, which eventually ended their unbeaten streak at the ongoing ODI showpiece.
Following a loss by 31 runs at the hands of England, means Pakistan slid to number five spot on the World Cup points table, as the Three Lions fetch crucial two points to claim overall 10 in eight matches.
India’s unbeaten run comes to a halt at Edgbaston:
Basit, who played 50 ODIs and 19 Tests for Pakistan referred India had a ‘picnic’ in Birmingham.
“They had a picnic on the field. The batsmen were just making sure they were in good form. Rohit Sharma scored a century at his own time, Virat Kohli score his 66 so leisurely. It was just (Hardik) Pandya who was hitting and scored 45 off 33 balls,” Basit told a Pakistan-based TV channel following India’s loss.
The Men in Green have nine points in as many games. Thus, the scenarios suggest that if England wins against New Zealand, they’ll certainly qualify for the final four.
On the other side, if England loses to the Black Caps and Pakistan went on to win their last league stage game then Pakistan will mathematically qualify as one of the teams to make it to the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, chasing a formidable target of 338 in 50 overs, Indian managed just 28 off first ten overs. The top-order batsman failed to up the ante despite a crucial 138-run stand for the second between centurion Rohit Sharma 102 (109) and skipper Virat Kohli 66 (76).
In between, playing his first World Cup game, Rishabh Pant showed some resistance by scoring 29-ball 32. Also, Hardik Pandya tried his level best what the situation demanded. But he returned to pavilion at the score of 45, which came off 33 balls.
Thus, MS Dhoni alongside Kedar Jadhav found it difficult in between on a double-paced surface which eventually tends to slow down things a bit.
Also, the duo drew flak for not showing intent at the fag end of India’s innings.
In the end, India managed 306 for five in 50 overs. Also, Dhoni faced 31 balls for his 42* and Jadhav remained unbeaten on 12 off 13 balls.
Besides, the 48-year-old Ali had faced criticism for his unsavoury comments. Recently, he claimed that India would intentionally perform poorly against England.
“If you are chasing 337 runs and in the first 10 overs you only make 28 runs in which two fielders are in the outer circle, then according to me India played those 10 overs really bad,” Ali added.
Ahead of England-India game, Basit also claimed that India might deliberately lose to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to dash Pakistan’s hopes for the semi-final spot.