England beat India: Sanjay Manjrekar, Sourav Ganguly question Dhoni's gameplan

India's unbeaten run at this world cup came to a screeching halt on Sunday when England defeated Virat Kohli's 'unbeaten team'. With just five wickets lost and MS Dhoni in the middle, still India appeared to give a walkover to England and this has raised serious questions about the gameplan that Dhoni had in mind. Two former cricketers—Sanjay Manjrekar, Sourav Ganguly—who happen to be commentators with International Cricket Council (ICC) have questioned Dhoni's strategy of not going after the ball when there was no other alternative available that could change the outcome of the match for India.

Dada calls a spade a spade

First, it was Sourav Ganguly who minced no words during post-match discussions aired live from the field. When Mayanti Langer asked for comments, Sourav Ganguly said: "You can't play like this when you have five wickets in hand. Either you win it or lose it. It is better to be all out scoring 300 run rather than having five wickets in hand and not going after the ball". Ganguly highlighted the need to play as per the requirement of the time which demanded Dhoni to take the risk and try to hit the ball and score 10-12 run per over in the last six overs. "When you have so much experience, you need to learn and adapt to the format and the requirements of the game. In the end, you might have around 125 strike-rate, but that was not the requirement of the hour to win the game for India, you must make efforts to win the match," Ganguly said.

Sanjay Manjrekar selects the right questions

Former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar—widely respected for his superb-technique when he played for India—is equally deft at asking pertinent questions. During the post-match prize distribution ceremony Sanjay Manjrekar questioned Dhoni's gameplan and posed direct questions to Indian captain Virat Kohli and England captain Eoin Morgan.

"What was Dhoni's game plan and should not he have accelerated during the last couple of overs?" Manjrekar asked.

Virat Kohli tried to duck it initially but then responded: Yes, we could have accelerated a bit in the last overs, Dhoni was trying to make it happen, but yes we could have done better with the bat. We will sit together and try to understand and learn from it.

Eoin Morgan smiled when asked about Dhoni's gameplan and said: "We were quite happy with the developments".

Eoin Morgan went on to praise his bowlers for giving no room to score runs especially during the last couple of overs.

Of course, the Indian players are going to learn their lessons and hopefully won't give up till the last ball is bowled. But we can be proud of our commentators, who had the guts to ask the right questions at the right time. Yes, there is a risk of getting stumped when you go after Indian players, but Sanjay Manjrekar and Sourav Ganguly have never buckled under pressure—on the field or off the field.