‘I wasn’t happy, it was very slow’ – Sachin Tendulkar disappointed with Dhoni-Jadhav partnership

India had the last laugh at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton on Saturday when they narrowly beat Afghanistan by 11 runs in a thriller. The bottom-placed team came up with a renewed vigor despite going winless and exposed some of India’s shortcomings in the game, especially in their batting. Former India captain Sachin Tendulkar conceded that he was not happy with the Indian middle-order’s approach to the game and felt that the batsmen lacked intent in the middle overs.

India captain Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bat but the Men in Blue’s performance with the willow was nowhere near their previous shows in the tournament. KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma, who played too well against Pakistan, failed to impress. Kohli scored a 63-ball 67 but it was the slow partnership between Mahendra Singh Dhoni (28 off 52) and Kedar Jadhav (52 off 68) that had turned off many fans.

Their slow batting didn’t avert Sachin Tendulkar’s notice either. Known for his brisk scoring against the spinners in his playing days, the 46-year-old said the Dhoni-Jadhav partnership was just too slow against the Afghanistan spinners and felt “slightly disappointed”.

‘There was no positive intent’

“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 was quoted as saying by India Today.

“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.” The maestro said Jadhav looked rusty since he did not have much of a chance to bat in the middle and score.

India, who scored at a healthy rate in the last 10 over against experienced teams like Australia and Pakistan in the previous games, failed to manage even six-runs an over against Afghanistan and ended up with only 224 for 8 in 50 overs, their lowest score in this World Cup so far.

Dhoni and Jadhav consumed 84 balls for their 57-run partnership for the fifth wicket. Of those, the wicketkeeper-batsman made 24 off 36 while Jadhav made 31 off 48. India though prevailed eventually over their opponents, thanks to a brilliant performance from their bowlers like Mohammed Shami (4 for 40) and Jasprit Bumrah (2 for 39).