Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar has expressed his disappointment over the slow batting of MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav during India’s ICC Cricket World 2019 match against rookie Afghanistan side.
India scored 224 for eight in their inning against Afghanistan. With 16 runs to get in the last over, Mohammad Nabi (52 off 55) came excruciatingly close to leading his side to its maiden victory in the tournament before Afghanistan was bowled out for 213.
Talking to India Today after the match, Tendulkar didn’t hold his words while expressing his disappointment over lack of intent from Dhoni and Jadhav to score quick runs against Afghanistan spinners.
“I felt slightly disappointed, it could have been much better. I was also not happy with the partnership between Kedar and Dhoni, it was very slow. We batted 34 overs of spin bowling and scored 119 runs. This was one area where we didn’t look comfortable at all. There was no positive intent,” Tendulkar told India Today.
In the match, Dhoni scored 24 off 36 balls and Jadhav scored 31 from 48 added 57 runs off 84 balls for the fifth wicket that as per Tendulkar was too slow.
“There were more than 2-3 dot balls. After Virat got out in the 38th over and till the 45th over we hadn’t scored many runs. There were not enough outings for the middle order batsmen till now and that put pressure on them. But the intent could have been much better by the middle order batsmen,” Tendulkar said.
“Kedar Jadhav was under pressure, he had not had an outing up until now. He needed someone to take charge of the situation early on but that did not happen.
