A billion hearts were broken yesterday as India lost to Australia in the Cricket World Cup finals ….. the deafening silence was quite something !
I was less affected because am not into cricket as much as I was during my school days. The 1983 World Cup final will remain the greatest victory for me because it was unbelievable. Beating the best cricketing team ever (probably), the West Indies, with a team ranked nearly at the bottom of the pile was truly mind blowing. It was also inspiring because it proved that the odds can be beaten.
Ofcourse the 175 runs that Kapil Dev hit during the league matches against Zimbabwe can never be equalled in my mind …. Glenn Maxwell nearly repeated the performance against Afghanistan during this World Cup, but it still wasn’t the same as Kapil Dev’s. 🙂
Krishnan assumed his lucky position for the match. I went out for an afternoon walk and took Amma along so that we didn’t ding India’s chances. Our condo complex had made arrangements for people to view the match on a large screen with food stalls and other fun things.
The Batting Disaster
I don’t know the technicalities, but I find it strange that none of the batsmen could ensure that India reached 300 runs at least … Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, K L Rahul, and Ravindra Jadeja – a batting lineup of stars. Virat Kohli has the highest number of 100’s in the history of the game, Shubman Gill is the youngest to hit a double century in one-day games, K L Rahul has been given so many opportunities that the Bollywood star kids started feeling there was nepotism in Cricket, Rohit Sharma on a “good” day can give anyone a run for their money, Shreyas Iyer has probably hit sixers with one hand against the best bowlers and Ravindra Jadeja has always contributed.
What happened ? If a big stage made these stars freeze up then it’s just sad.
But it’s only a game and yesterday was not India’s day. Am not dissing the players and not taking anything away from their achievements. I just felt if the batters had got us a score of above 300, a billion hearts wouldn’t have been broken even if we had lost the match.
Giving Up
Once Travis Head settled, India almost gave up …. the same Shami who won the Semi-finals for us single handedly couldn’t make a dent. All the talks of dew and the wicket being difficult to score runs on went up in smoke as Travis Head scored 137 on the same darned pitch.
When Australia was batting, Krishnan didn’t want to see the match, because India’s always won when he wasn’t watching the team bowling. So we went out for a walk again. Look at the short video clip to see how our condo complex enjoyed the initial few overs till Head butted his head against us :(.
We were still hopeful that India will make a comeback. But by the time we walked back home …. the hope was waning. Suddenly all the WhatsApp chatter disappeared. A hush fell over the entire condo complex. We could almost hear a pin drop.
A billion hearts were broken momentarily. Indians will always come back and support cricket because we love the game and the Demi-Gods who play it.
Truth be told, I miss Dhoni. This man is the only captain that I have seen who had the mental strength to come back from the pits. Before him ofcourse it was the great Kapil Dev. I don’t know what sort of people both of them are in their personal lives, but this quality of never giving up is inspiring.
Anyway, that’s that. Congratulations Australia. Take heart Indian Cricket Team – you have it in you to bounce back and with more strength. It’s sad but the game goes on and a win is just around the corner :).
Jai Hind. Jai Hind Ki Sena.
Really broken mam. I couldn’t believe. I had so much hope. I lost my hope on Astrology too. So many astrologers predicted Indian will win the match. I lost the hope.
My daughter is in grade 4 and while she was watching Indian batting she said that Indian players are not looking energetic today while Australian players are very active. Then she said, Australia will win today. Don’t know how did she visualized it early on, but I would have to agree with her.
Australian team right from the beginning came with the winning mind set, and that was evident right from the beginning of the match. If we look at it retrospectively, Australia elected to field first after winning the toss. Their decision to field first was strongly backed by the brilliant piece of fielding, an amazing catch of Rohit Sharma and by setting an incredibly intelligent bowling attack based on batsmen weakness. Pat Cummins brought himself back to the attack and pitched in the deliveries that usually troubles Kohli. When Rohit Sharma was hitting, he brought Maxwell before the mainstream spinner Zampa to let Rohit hit, take chances and give a wicket. I can’t comment on Australian batting as I did not watch that part of the game because of disappointment on Indian scores. With the score of 240 and given the temperament Australian players had shown, I was sure that Australia will easily chase it up and that was what happened.
All in all, it was very well planned, extremely well executed and an all-hands-on-deck effort by Australian team.
Agree with you, somehow I missed MS Dhoni’s in the match.
Your daughter is very perceptive 🙏
Every Indian heart beat fast and it bled blue everywhere throughout India’s World Cup journey this time. After remaining undefeated in all matches, the team would have undoubtedly felt the most hurt. This time, I won’t nurture the sentiment of anger, rather want to celebrate the splendid display of perseverance, commitment and skill. The only thing I feel is there is still some learning to be done……learning resilience and mental toughness from the Aussies. They know where, when and how to shut themselves to the outer noise to capitalise on and channelise their inner strengths. Cherish and celebrate all the wins, Team India and happy learning!
Well said Surabhi 👍