Clash of fandoms
One is the most successful batsman Indian has ever produced. Another is India's most successful captain who has won every silverware possible. One has served the nation for close to two and half decade. The other in his one and half decade career has never really dropped the ball and has been a consistent superstar. One played with grief after losing his father. The other refused to compromise on India duty even when his kid was born. No wonder, both these two icons of Indian cricket, Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni have extremely dedicated and crazy fandom.
So, it's unlikely to be pretty when both the fandoms collide. It has after Dhoni's insipid 52 balls 28 runs innings against Afghanistan in India's group stage world cup match. While Team India just barely managed to win thanks to Bumrah and Shami's brilliant death bowling, India's batting particularly of the middle order remained lot to be desired.
Spectators watched in frustration as Kedar Jadhav and Mahendra SIngh Dhoni played a plethora of dot balls against Afghan spinners. Finally Dhoni got stumped in the bid to up the ante against Rashid Khan. Sachin Tendulkar normally not really known for taking strong stance on things (which are not related to Greg Chappel), in an uncharacteristic manner expressed strong disappointment at Dhoni and Jadhav's innings. Perhaps the fact that title contender India was almost defeated by the bottom-placed Afghanistan irked the God of Cricket.
However, Dhoni fans haven't taken the attack to well.
Here is how it is playing out on social media:
Sachin (about Dhoni): He did not show any positive intent against Afghanistan
— Keh Ke Peheno (@coolfunnytshirt) June 24, 2019
Dhoni: Are you talking about the positive intent which you used to show in your 90s..
*Dhoni Fans vs Sachin Fans* pic.twitter.com/osoaojRoPg
— Prince Pandey (@princepandey_) June 24, 2019
Dhoni will be always Dhoni,no one can be like him, though the world meet its end...in one word,#Thala always be #Thala pic.twitter.com/62AWdXGK5n
— Pankaj Aadarah (@Pankaj_Aadarsh7) June 25, 2019
Sachin 2003 WC runs
— Harish godha (@Down_the_track) June 24, 2019
673 runs
Ms Dhoni 2007, 2011, 2015, till afg match
597 runs pic.twitter.com/nttjZiOlpS
#MSD one slow innings and everybody is baying for his blood .... unfair on @sachin_rt to come out in public criticising Dhoni. Dear Great Batsman ... the WK batsman has won many more matches for India than u did !! https://t.co/ZUVtw9XlIV
— Rakesh Srivastava (@Rakeshjampot) June 25, 2019
Twitter is hilarious. 2 vastly different tweets on the same matter. pic.twitter.com/KS8ObtsbBa
— Adwait Dubey (@AdwaitDubey) June 24, 2019
1. Some tried to see reason in this fight
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Folks going after Tendulkar for what they perceive as criticism of Dhoni. Tendulkar was beyond questioning not so long ago in fan circles. The wheel has truly turned a full circle. #CWC19
— cricBC (@cricBC) June 24, 2019
To be honest, Tendulkar received a lot of unfair flak about his batting even in his prime. He used to get blamed for India losing games despite him scoring 100s when the real reason was a shitty team. Some of the Dhoni fan-club cannot take a word of criticism.
— The Fourth Seat Podcast (@SeatFourth) June 24, 2019
Most senseless and meaning less fanwars I've seen(Only in twitter)
— . (@travlinSoldier_) June 25, 2019
Chiru/kalyan
Sachin/Dhoni
Asalu cricket fanwars ee senseless ante idhi inkaaa senseless
Spreading some positive vibes to everyone too much negativity here. pic.twitter.com/66yIwt5XIs
— R A T N I $ H (@LoyalSachinFan) June 24, 2019
Most of the haters don't actually hate Dhoni. They hate the unreasonable over the top fanbois who credit everything good happening in the team to Dhoni which becomes irritating after a point of time.
— Pankaj Aadarah (@Pankaj_Aadarsh7) June 25, 2019
I Dhoni.
(Image-AFP)
2. What did Sachin say about Dhoni
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Sachin Tendulkar was left disappointed by India's slow batting display against Afghanistan and said the middle-order batsmen, including Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav, lacked positive intent during their tense World Cup clash here.
India's famed middle-order failed to counter the Afghanistan spinners as the Gulbadin Naib-led side restricted the two-time champions to a below-par 224 for eight.
With 16 runs to get in the last over, Mohammad Nabi (52 off 55) came excruciatingly close to leading his side to their maiden victory in the tournament before Afghanistan were bowled out for 213.
A last over hat-trick by Mohammad Shami along with excellent death over bowling by Jasprit Bumrah saved the day for India.
"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'.
Dhoni (24 off 36 balls) and Jadhav (31 off 48) added 57 runs off 84 balls for the fifth wicket, thus slowing down the proceedings considerably in the middle overs.
"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.
This was the first time India's top-order failed in the tournament although skipper Virat Kohli scored 67.
Tendulkar hinted that senior player Dhoni should have taken charge as Jadhav's batting was hardly tested in the tournament. The Maharashtra batsman had faced just eight balls (against Pakistan) in the only tournament before the encounter against Afghanistan.
"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.
"Both Kedar and Dhoni were not able to play at the required strike rate that they would have wanted. Those in-between overs could have been better and that is why Kedar was under a bit of pressure," Tendulkar said.- PTI
(Image-AFP)
3. Dhoni had an indiffirent match against Afghanistan
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By his ridiculously high standard, Mahi had an indifferent match against Afghanistan. Not only did he falter massively with the bat, he erred in DRS call too. Dhoni has a penchant for getting DRS referrals correct, such that fans often say DRS is Dhoni Review System. But here, Dhoni failed to correctly guide captain Kohli which lead to India losing its review.
But it is hard to keep a legend like Dhoni out of the game. He enforced a cucial stumping of Chahal's bowling near the fag end to ensure that Afghanistan's chances get further depleted.
(Image-AFP)
