England end India's unbeaten run in CWC

If I saw the same game as you guys and If indeed Cricket is a team game 1)Granted Dhoni /Jhadav never showed “fire in belly” but Dhoni bad luck or not,got hit on his thumb while batting. 2)Shami gave away vital runs in the end overs. 3)Pant,Rohit gave chances which if taken would’ve let Dhoni in earlier. 4)Rahul batted as if it was a minefield. A review was missed. 4)Even Kholi and Rohit didn’t just smack it,they had to fiind their feet. So others are gonna be watchful. And India for the most part,are cruelly keeping out Jadeja and Dinesh. Either of those two would have eased Dhoni’s work. Lastly,,Man..Dhoni much like sachin in Later days is struggling but still is a vital cog..So chill. And for those who say India batted slowly to edge Pak out, was Pak surely near the final4 in the firstplace ??? They should win their matches first..

Jay, from a strategic perspective, I think it was one of those games where Kohli could afford the loss, but trying that bowling combination was worth a try. Fair enough, in this instance it didn't work out, but it hardly hurt India's chances of making the finals. I'm sure you're also right about the pitch being a bit 2 paced, which English bowlers exploited. KL Rahul didn't help the cause, not only by being slow, but then getting out for a duck. I think it set the tone for what came next, which effectively put India out of this game.

Here comes MSD-bashing brigrade! Virat, Ro, shirt, pandya sahab no one should be questioned. Only person who should be questioned is MSD. If he plays according to surface he lacks intent, if he gets out trying to play big shot he is out of form. Where ever and whatever happens in this universe is somehow MSD's fault.

I agree with you Paul that was more on India's bowling than on the batting. But I think it was more about their spinners than their pacers. Given the very short boundary, picking 2 spinners was a massive risk that did not pay off since they went for 160 runs off their 20 overs. Indian batting did as well as could be excepted except the first powerplay where they were incredibly slow given the total they were chasing. I also think the pitch slowed up significantly and became two paced after the first 20-30 overs of the England innings and so that was a good toss to win for England. India will probably be okay with the loss given they came close with the deck stacked against them.

Hi FWM. No, I know you were just throwing out those points to generate discussion through counter-viewpoints. I like it! Maybe Kohli and co. were "off" a little bit from going at 100% optimal approach, but what team doesn't do that in a somewhat "non must-win" game and when it looks like the match has stretched out beyond likely victory? I think that's perfectly normal and understandable. I'm confident Kohli would never consciously not be trying to win. That approach is what has made Kohli one of the greatest players in generations. He is the type of player I would go o/s to watch a "neutrals" game of cricket.

Jeff, for the record, I’m not seriously suggesting anything. My 3rd point was just something I noticed at the time. Kholi was boundary riding, a ball required him to run flat out but looked to me he didn’t put in the same effort he’d expect of his team mates.

No, he didn't ignore the opportunity. He considered strongly whether to go up, but nobody looked certain, Turns out it was a feather of a touch. I must say the spinners took a pounding in their first spell. Often they would be bowl good balls, then just drop some short and allow Roy/Bairstow to tee often. Too often I thought - 113 off 11 middle overs is poor. To their credit, they came back in later spells and went for almost half that ER. Last one, that was a lot to get off the last few overs - I think it was up to 12 an over by the 43rd? Your comment re Kholi. Me too. I can't see Virat ever allowing a sub-par performance, though I do think when it comes to instructing Dhoni he may still feel a bit of a junior.

I didn’t see India bat but I’ll bite for fun on this conspiracy theory stuff....I saw Kholi: 1. Ignore a review opportunity, 2. Continue bowling spinners getting whacked for 10 an over, 3. Give up (what seemed to be) prematurely on a boundary chase. His strike rate was materially less than Dhoni’s. Is the finger being pointed in the right direction here? Any by the way, I’m a big fan of Kholi - best batsman in the last 40 years.

Not for most Western Australians where rugby is concerned.

Yes actually even sachin tendulkar was criticised for not retiring after 2011. And I am glad that sachin did not listen. I do not mind sachin criticising MSD, but I do not remember him saying MSD should retire. Most criticism of MSD is directed to his batting approach.

With 4 overs to go, India still needed 62 runs from 24 balls. Perhaps he saw that the match was just unwinnable at that point? Or maybe he was rotating the strike to Jadhav to give him the role of hitting boundaries? Don’t subscribe to the deliberate loss thought. If it was a deliberate loss, they could have still smacked it around to silence any conspiracy theories, because they would have still lost. India isn’t the only team in this WC to take their foot off the peddle when the game was lost, even for teams still in contention to make the SFs earlier in the tournament.

"..dhoni’s performance yesterday is one of the most shameful performance in Indian Cricket History right up there with Mongia-Prabhakaran innings and gavaskar’s 36 in 174 balls..." I do like a bit of hyperbole late in the afternoon. How dare you bring Sunny into this discussion! Am a bit confused though, you say in regard to the Dhoni/Jadhav partnership that everyone "was still hopeful because they were fighting at least...showing some intent to win the match". So which is it? Who is your best pick to replace MSD?

dhoni taking singles and playing out dot balls in the last 4 overs was ridiculous. very very dodgy tbh.

Virat told MSD not to make it too obvious, so he hit a token six to fool people! But Virat was angry after the game because of Dhoni's terrible acting - no one believed in his 'performance' last night except for the Dhoni fangirls. No Bollywood contract for Dhoni after that rubbish ... Pandya was hopeless too, but just following orders.

Nice script sir , virat batted at strike rate of 80, two self proclaimed power hitters could not hit a single six together when asking rate was soaring over 10 and virat asked MSD of all people in the world to lose the game for us.Point well taken. ????

That's the only reason Pant got picked - so he could keep when Dhoni came on to bowl ten overs of rubbish that England could score 100 runs off. But it turned out they didn't need him because India's spinners got smashed anyway. So Virat told Dhoni, don't worry about bowling, just make sure you come in for the last 15 overs of batting and lose the game for us. So now England makes the semi finals and Pakistan misses out. Job well done, sir.

dhoni succeeded afridi in terms of being the most overrated cricketer on the planet

I can't believe Dhoni fans are still finding reasons to defend him.. And blaming everyone else in the team even after his horrible innings..dhoni's performance yesterday is one of the most shameful performance in Indian Cricket History right up there with Mongia-Prabhakaran innings and gavaskar's 36 in 174 balls..Still they are questioning Rohit, Kohli, Panth & Pandya ! Everybody was hopeful when these guys were in the crease because they were fighting atleast.Showing some intent to win the match.But I am sure even the Dhoni fans didn't have any hope left after the Dhoni Jadhav partnership started.. They accepted the defeat in the 45 th over itself and that was the most pathetic thing about yesterday..India will no longer will be felt as a champions team as long as these losers have a place in the team.. What is more irritating is that this same guy ended the careers of all the legends like gambhir, sehwag, ganguli, sachin, lakshman, yuvraj etc.. with the excuse of filling the team with younger players even though they all were in much better form than Dhoni now. Gambhir was in top form in 2012 but Dhoni ended his career saying in 2015 we don't need Gambhir as boundaries in australia are very long and he won't fit into the team.. Why he is being a hypocrite now..With this terrible form why he is still sticking around shamelessly curbing the career of many other deserved younger players like Panth, sanju samsin, Dinesh Karthik etc..? !

Oh,sorry. It is hard to understand who is replying who. All answers are in same line. ????

The reply was to the other poster, Ruchika.