India vs England, ICC Cricket World Cup 2019: MS Dhoni, Kedar Jadhav's lack of intent in final overs elicits unpleasant memories of 1994

Did India leave too much to do for an idiosyncratic ‘finisher’ Mahendra Singh Dhoni against a back-to-the-wall hosts England in a crunch game at Edgbaston, Birmingham, on Sunday? Well, his intent, or lack of it, has become a raging debate as India lost the only unbeatable team tag in the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup.

Had Dhoni showed a little more intent India, who have lost five of their last seven 300-plus run chases, would have still ended up second best against England, the margin of loss could have been significantly less.

Dhoni and his ‘partner-in-crime’ Kedar Jadhav appeared to have mentally lost the game after Hardik Pandya got out in the penultimate ball of the 44th over. It appeared that Dhoni unilaterally decided to quietly play out – peppered by some wild swings – the rest of the five overs. He hardly showed any aggression to reduce the target, even though India still had five wickets in hand.

Dhoni, who is of late struggling against spin and slow bowlers in the early part of his knocks and consuming too many dot bowls to put an unnecessary pressure on the business end of the innings, had no such excuse to offer on Sunday as England pressed their fast bowlers in the death.

Did Dhoni try to protect India’s net run rate, much to the bafflement of legions of fans of Team India? If that’s the case, neither the team management nor Indian captain Virat Kohli made any statement in the end-game presentation ceremony or post-match press conference. Did India decide to throw away the game to prevent arch-rival Pakistan from making the last four of the quadrennial tournament? Conjectures are flying thick and fast as mum is the word from Team India camp.

However, Sunday’s game revived unsavoury memories of a similar bizarre India run chase back home against West Indies on 30 October, 1994 (Disclaimer: India’s 31-run loss can be attributed only to lack of application and intent than any ulterior motive).

Let’s rewind to that game – the fourth One Day International (ODI) of the Wills World Cup Series – at Green Park, Kanpur.

In the triangular ODI series, India was through to the final, irrespective of the outcome of the Kanpur game, as the match between West Indies and New Zealand was abandoned.

Be that as it may, Prabhakar and Mongia put their shutters down and simply refused to chase down 63 runs off 54 balls – certainly a gettable target – but displayed 40 minutes of incredible copybook cricket, much to everybody’s dismay.

The duo added only four runs in five overs, and in the last five yielded another 11. Prabhakar, seldom known for his big-hitting prowess, went on to score his second ODI hundred, and remained unbeaten at 102 off 154 balls amid all-round jeer from Green Park spectators. His non-striker Mongia, who earlier in the West Indies innings had ‘deliberately muffed up’ an opportunity to run out fast bowler Anderson Cummins. The Indian wicket-keeper neatly collected the ball when Cummins was out of his crease, but inexplicably chose to throw it at the other end, raising doubts over his ‘integrity’.

Eventually, India lost the game by 46 runs, a margin that could have been considerably less had both Prabhakar and Mongia – they scored a paltry 11 runs in 48 balls – swung their bats around as the hosts still had five wickets in the hut. Was Prabhakar playing for his personal glory and milestone? Was Mongia a willing accomplice to Prabhakar’s selfish game plan? A good 25 years later, little is known about their ‘brain fade moment’ that not only brought disrepute to the game, but perhaps could have prompted the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to constitute a one-man probe panel, headed by ex-Chief Justice of India YV Chandrachud, in 1997 on match-fixing allegations levelled by Prabhakar to weekly magazine, Outlook. Prabhakar made explicit reference to the Kanpur game as well: he along with Mongia deliberately put the shutters down on instruction from an unknown member of Indian cricket team that was led by Mohammad Azharuddin, who was later implicated in the match-fixing scandal.

Prabhakar told Outlook, in the issue published on June 11, 1997: “In Kanpur, when we were chasing the West Indies score, [Nayan> Mongia came in to bat and conveyed the management’s instruction to try and get as close to the target. The resultant hullabaloo about my going slow would be directed at the team management and not me as I was doing so under their instructions. Of the 48 balls in that period, I played just 11. I scored nine off those 11 balls.”

The retribution of that ‘infamous” Kanpur game was swift. Then, International Cricket Council (ICC) president Raman Subba Row penalised India two points, citing India preferred West Indies to New Zealand in the tri-nation tournament’s final. Later, the decision was revered by ICC on the grounds that the international cricket body wasn’t empowered to do. However, the Rao’s decision defied logic: why would India preferred West Indies to New Zealand as the Kiwis were definitely a weaker team than their eventual final opponent.

Prabhakar and Mongia were dropped for the rest of the tournament. They were replaced by Chetan Sharma and Vijay Yadav. For the record, India lifted the trophy, defeating West Indies by 72 runs in Kolkata.

A livid Prabhakar recounted to Outlook: “In fact, due to someone else’s fault, I was dropped and humiliated.” That “someone” remains one of the greatest “mysteries” of Indian cricket amid the sordid saga of match fixing.

For all the latest news, opinions and analysis from ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, click here