‘What you do in life defines who you are,’ Waqar tweets after India’s loss

Pakistan’s former fast bowler, Waqar Younis took to Twitter after India’s disappointing performance against England, where they did not show any intent to win the match.

It was one of the rare occasions, where Pakistani cricket fans were supporting India as their win over England could have paved their team’s way for the semi finals of the World Cup.

However, while chasing a big total of 338 runs, India were 28/1 after first ten overs, with Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma at the crease. There was a time in the middle, when India played well, but the latter part of the inning was actually painful to watch.

With India needing 71 runs off the last five overs, MS Dhoni was dealing in singles with no effort to take his team even close to a win, eventually scoring 39 runs off 31 deliveries, which included 20 singles and seven dot deliveries. The only six of the Indian inning came in the last over of the match, while England struck 13 maximums in their turn.

On this effort, Waqar Younis said that Pakistan making it to the semi-finals or not does not bother it, but the way India performed on the day concerns him.

It’s not who you are.. What you do in life defines who you are.. Me not bothered if Pakistan gets to the semis or not but one thing is for sure.. Sportsmanship of few Champions got tested and they failed badly #INDvsEND #CWC2019

— Waqar Younis (@waqyounis99) June 30, 2019

“It’s not who you are.. What you do in life defines who you are.. Me not bothered if Pakistan gets to the semis or not but one thing is for sure.. Sportsmanship of few Champions got tested and they failed badly,” he wrote.

On the other hand, when MS Dhoni and Kedhar Jhadav were batting in the last few overs, Nasser Hussain questioned their approach and said they are not showing any intent to win the game and called their strategy baffling. India’s former skipper, Sourav Ganguly was also unable to justify what his countrymen were up to.

“I am completely baffled. What’s going on! This is not what India needed. They need runs. What are they doing? Some Indian fans are leaving now. Surely they must want to see Dhoni go for his shots, even if he slogs it off in the air. It’s a World Cup game, top 2 sides, give it a go! Indian fans would want their side to do a little bit more. They want their side to go down with a fight. Risk it to win it,” said Hussain during the last 10 overs of India’s chase.

He was of the view that having five wickets in hand in a losing cause while chasing 338 runs does not make any sense.

“I don’t have an explanation for that. You asked me the question but I can’t explain these singles. It’s also the length and the bounce that has deceived the Indian batsmen. You can’t be chasing 338 and still have 5 wickets in the end. It’s about mindset and the way you look at the game. The message had to be clear: no matter where it comes and no matter where the ball lands you have to find the boundary. A dot ball at this stage!,” said Ganguly.

India lost the game against England by 31 runs, leaving Pakistan hoping for a New Zealand victory against England for a berth in the semi final. In another scenario, hoping England to beat New Zealand with a big margin and Pakistan beating Bangladesh with a considerable margin so that they can surpass Kiwis on net run rate.

Newer Post Older Post