The men in blue suffered humiliating losses at the hands of arch rival Pakistan and then New Zealand during the currently ongoing ICC T20 World Cup. There was deep angst among cricket fans and vile abuse expressed on social media. Fans just had to take consolation from wins over teams like Afghanistan, Scotland and Namibia.
This was India’s last match in the competition. The anguished sarcasm of this tweet owes itself to the fact that most Indians didn’t know that Namibia even has an international cricket team.
After NZ beat Afghanistan, India’s last feeble hope of advancing to the next stage of the competition was extinguished.
The amount of cricket the Indian players have had to play over the past few months is probably the reason for the team's jaded, lacklustre performances.
The men in blue had to deal with nasty abuse from fans along with the crushing disappointment of being eliminated from the competition.
Many of the tweeple expressed the view that the Indian players seemed to be in a big hurry to hurry back home. This level of bitterness in fans points to the fact that fans have unrealistic expectations from the players.
Qualify to go back home that is.
India went into the match against Namibia with little to lose.
Namibia made 132 for 8 and India won by 9 wickets and got there with 28 balls to spare.
People were making objectively funny memes such as this about the match in which our openers finally came good. Rohit Sharma made 54 and K L Rahul made 56, but what really is the point
Ravindra Jadeja was man of the match for his bowling figures of 3 for 16, but some weren't really paying attention.
…Only so they could avoid doing other things.
The Indian players return home.
The comprehensive win against Namibia wasn’t much of a consolation.
It was a short run for the Indian team.
This was Virat Kohli’s last match as India’s T20 captain. It has been hinted at repeatedly that Rohit Sharma is likely to be the next captain. Meanwhile, I will be able to watch the remainder of the ICC T20 World Cup with some amount of dispassion.
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