Has India deliberately lost to England?

On June 27, three days before the world waits for the clash between India and England at the 2019 Cricket World Cup, a former Pakistani cricketer Basit Ali made a sensational statement on Pakistani national television: "India will deliberately abandon the match against England to make sure that Pakistan does not make it to the semifinals. "

Soon, Mr. Ali's comments on a Pakistan-based channel, Ary News, caused a lot of embarrassment on social media, and there were discussions around this discussion. All this happened when his country, Pakistan, had seven points in his kitty and was engaged in a four-way battle to get a semifinal seat alongside England, Sri Lanka and from Bangladesh.

Pakistan relied on its neighbor and political rival, India, who had an undefeated tournament to take over England. This favorable result would have increased the chances of the men of the Pakistan skipper Sarfaraz to go to the semifinals.

While some have bought Mr. Ali's argument, others have simply denied his predictions about the match-up between tournament favorites England and India.

On June 30, match day, England scored a formidable 337 on dry ground and quite sub-continental. While pursuing it, India did not reach its target, with five important wickets in hand, the approach of the blues was questioned. To the surprise of all, the invincible World Cup went back to the play-off pond with 31 more points to score. It was the first defeat of India in the tournament against a team that had to win the match to stay afloat.

Now, the world has taken Mr. Ali's claims more seriously, along with so many others in Pakistan and Kashmir, believing that India is deliberately abandoning the match. In addition to ordinary citizens on social media, Waqar Younis, legend of Pakistani cricket as the ancient legend of cricket, questions about the approach to tweeting: "I do not worry not that Pakistan is going to the semifinals or not, but one thing is certain. The sportsmanship of a few champions has been tested and they have failed. "

Future statistics may suggest that India has lost against England to prevent Pakistan from reaching the semifinals, although this is not the case. Below, I present arguments to refute the claims of some experts and fans of cricket, saying that India has abandoned the match.

• The World Cup is a milestone event where momentum plays an important role in maintaining your morale. Given that India was undefeated until then, there is no way for the team led by Virat Kohli to ever give up the match, knowing that she will have to face the challenge again. England at any time of the tournament in the future. was not booked.
• There was an argument that India did not score much in the first ten overs – deliberately. However, looking more closely at the game, we realize that England has four extremely fast bowlers, three of which frequently hit the 145 KMPH mark. Their supremacy can be cited by limiting each team to less than 300 in all but two matches. The first powerplay score of India, twenty-eight, seemed to be an attempt to play against Jofra Archer. This was most evident when Rohit Sharma and Kohli dominated in the 10-28.
• Although many criticisms have been directed against the Indian stick, the fact remains that even after India has lost only one tournament match, their average order is fragile. This can still be proved by the fact that the champions twice have tried KL Rahul, Vijay Shankar, Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik and, of course, MS Dhoni in the middle order after the skipper Mr. Kohli, but they are still looking for a stable combination. So criticizing the stick is unfair.
• However, the biggest villain for Pakistani fans turned out to be one of the best players the game has ever seen – Mr. Dhoni. He and Mr. Jadhav scored just thirty-nine points in the last five assists, raising questions about their batting approach. The fact remains, however, that Mr. Dhoni, who scored forty-one points on thirty-two balls against England, could be seen struggling not only in the match, but for a few years now. In all, India played eight games in the current World Cup tournament and was only able to score 258 points, scoring an average of thirty-two runs per set. He was criticized for his USP: strike rate and rotation capacity of the strike.

Further analysis of Mr. Dhoni's fall reveals that since 2017, his strike rate has been reduced to eighty, which is even more striking with regard to the matches for which India was pursuing a target. . Therefore, the call for conspiracy, or even a culprit, who deliberately played in a particular way, is sinister.

The fact is that England is a great team, with a deadly combination of openers, who decimate any bowling attack of their day. That's what Jason Roy and Johny Bairstow did against India. Their bowling attack was knock whenever England asks for it and that's what sets them apart. These knights were bowling out–when the opposition beats second. So, saying that India has deliberately lost to England deliberately removes credit to these quickies.

Theory of conspiracy or not, we all know that Pakistan has not even exploited its full potential. Their victory over Afghanistan has not been beneficial for their cause, in terms of the net rate. In the middle of all this, it remains that Pakistan started this tournament on a sordid note and showed no intention or ability to go beyond what it is today.

This article was originally published in the July 8-14, 2019 issue of Walla of Kashmir.