We have never seen such a sensational game of cricket before! Hats off to New Zealand and England for making it worth watching. Its was Not ENGLAND vs NEW ZEALAND, it was Good Luck vs Bad Luck! Yess. England won the CWC2019. Tweeps across the globe went berserk. Literally running out of nails to bite. Someone tweeted, “England won World Cup, New Zealand won World’s heart”. One more fan of cricket the sport tweeted. Month long tournament treated fans to some excellent cricket and some thrilling matches. India dominated the group stage and finished at the top of the standings in the World cup. From Rohit Sharma’s multiple hundreds to Afghanistan playing excellent cricket but sadly falling short of a win, this year’s world cup has been absolutely nail biting for cricket fans globally.
India.. India..India.. India.. Obviously, the passion for the game in India is unrivalled and Fans from all over the globe were hoping to see Team India in the finals but sadly that dream shattered as team India didn’t qualify for the finals. In a closely contested game against New Zealand, India fell short by 18 runs. Ironically the 2 teams in the finals i.e England and New Zealand, are the only 2 teams India lost to in this World cup.
Indian fans this year proved they are the best thing which has happened to cricket. Indians this year travelled to England to see live action of the world cup. Usually very vocal to point out issues with the team, this time they proved their loyalty to the country and Team India by supporting the team and players after their shocking exit from the world cup. 2019 World Cup left 1.3 billion Indian hearts absolutely devastated and shattered. However, the fans took solace and pride with the fact that their team did not bow down without a fight in front of the lethal Kiwi bowling line-up. As twitterati kept buzzing with tweets like ‘Dhoni..This man still has a lot of cricket left in him. It just wasn’t his day and we need to praise him for everything he has given to us. He was the captain when India won WC after 28 years”.
Also, in anticipation of India being in the finals, they had already bought tickets for the big game. But they were disappointed as the team didn’t reach the finals. Cricket pundits were proclaiming that since India isn’t in the finals, Indian fans might be giving up those tickets and more tickets might be available. Thankfully, fans proved the pundits wrong and made cricket the winner. Lord’s witnessed A ‘Sea Of Blue’ As Indians filled the stands to root for their favourite team in the finals.
On the flip side, both the semi finals were marred by questionable umpiring. One incident was the M S Dhoni run out in Semi final 1, where there were 6 fielders outside the circle when by regulation it has to be not more than 5, and England’s Jason Roy was wrongly given caught behind, but since England didn’t have a review left, the decision stood, which resulted in an angry triade against the umpire for which he had to pay a hefty fine. Final also had its share of thrilling moments, especially the England winning the world cup on the basis of higher number of boundaries scored as the super over also ended in a tie leaving New Zealand fans in a quandary.
After India’s shocking defeat, several voices echoed that “Format of World Cup needs to be changed. Whats the use of topping the league and getting defeated in the semi’s.” Indian Captain Virat Kohli echoed the same sentiments to a newspaper “We were not good enough and that is the nature of this tournament. A bad day in the knockout stage and you are out”.
World cup also saw end of careers, with quite a few cricketers like Lashith Malinga, Sohaib Malik, Imran Tahir and J P Duminy announcing retirement from cricket. On the other hand, Ambati Raydu announced his retirement from cricket, after not being picked in the Indian cricket for world cup.
The topsy-turvy World cup ended with England becoming the First Time Champion and new era in cricket dawned with the power shifting from India and Australia.
As Industrialist Anand Mahindra had tweeted for Team India, “We fought like Titans till the end. You can’t ask more from sportsmen..I rise & applaud our #MenInBlue.
Here’s to a New Cricket World Cup Champion…
#CWC2019 #cricket #bleedblue #indiancricket #indiancricketfans #India #CWC19Final #TeamIndia
