As usual, the tweets said it best when they spoke about the big World Cup 2019 upset when the unbeaten New Zealand team was finally laid low by the Pakistanis or when they described the rather one-sided India-West Indies match. Check out the best tweets from these matches as well as the face-saving win by the South Africans versus the Sri Lankans. Meanwhile, there is the orange jersey controversy ahead of the India-England match today.
The Pak bowlers did well to restrict the black caps to a modest 237 runs. And then the Pak batsmen managed to surpass that total in 49.1 overs losing only four wickets.
One of the finds of the season appears to be Shaheen Afridi, who bowled a lethal spell against NZ. He broke the back of the batting and also bowled three maidens. The half century of Haris Sohail was another comfort for the Pak fans.
It spite of beating of the top teams in the competition, the Pak team is still a mere shadow of its former self. It languishes at no 6 on the points table and is most unlikely to make it to the semifinal stage.
The mercurial West Indies were in lacklustre form for their big India match. Though they did well to restrict India to 268, it never seemed as though their batsmen would get close to the target. In the end it was a complete rout; the Windies losing by a huge 125 run margin.
After his last over hat trick against the Afghan team, Mohammed Shami produced another great bowling spell. His four-wicket haul was largely responsible for decimating the West Indian batting lineup. Many on Twitter were angry that he was denied Player of the Match award for his bowling in either match.
India is now the only unbeaten team in the competition. Going into the match against England on Saturday, the men in blue will be confident and buoyed by their recent successes.
Sri Lanka was restricted to a modest 203 all out by the Proteas. The South Africans went on to comprehensively win the match in the 38th over, losing just one wicket. Right now, the chances of both teams of making it to the semifinal stage are negligible to nil.
Maybe this win won’t get them to the next stage of the competition, but it was a performance that the team could take heart from.
Soon various permutations and calculations will come into play to determine which teams will finally make it to the semifinal stage.
The rules require India to have a different coloured jersey than hosts England (who are also blue) for tomorrow’s match. This orange jersey is chosen. Some criticised this as an example of the saffronisation that we see everywhere in the country. Others thought this is a needless, contrived controversy. Far from being an infringement upon our secularism, this jersey represents our diversity, they felt.
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