First thing first, India Won!
But, Afghanistan won all the love.
What a match. This was worth World Cup Finals and what a way for Afghanistan to justify their place in the ICC World Cup 2019. They deserve to be here and they deserve to win the next World Cup if they carry on like this. They got over half a billion people to start praying for India, probably the world’s biggest prayers for a common cause.
Pakistan’s defeat and India’s victory against them suddenly lost all meaning, when every Indian could see humiliation just a few balls away, at the hands of Afghanistan! Four on the first ball of the last over looked like the proverbial last nail in the coffin. Fortunately, Nabi got trapped on the next ball and it was an easy end after that.
Just when everyone was hanging on to the edge of their seats, 49th over of Jasprit Bumrah proved to be a killer. He not only contained Afghanistan but also set the frame of reference for Mohammed Shami. And Shami defined success, once again. Probably Bumrah got Man of the Match for this reason too.
India needed a wake-up call, and as per social media guru Sanjay Mehta on Twitter – “But Good to get a little wake-up call of this kind. Else we might peak too early and get overconfident.” – Absolutely! We almost did snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and this match would have surely broken an equal number of hearts and televisions.
The jury is still out on whether this is the best match so far or not. As per Thakur Vishwa Ranjan, cyber-law geek and Cricket blogger, as shared on WhatsApp – “However, I consider Sri Lanka – England match as the match of the tournament till now. Chasing 233, World No.1 ODI side, hosts and one of the favorites to win the Cup, England was restricted by Sri Lanka on 212, on the ground where the same team comfortably chased 350+ against Pak barely a month ago.” Ravi Mathur, CTO and Cricket blogger opined, “Absolutely match of the tournament till now – way better show put up by Afghans than the over-hyped India Pakistan game. The Shami hat-trick might make the headlines, but it was Bumrah’s 49th over that sealed the match.”
The wittiest tweet of the match award goes to senior IPS Officer Herman Prit Singh’s tweet… Now we know what makes Afghanistan team strong, Herman.
As the famous one-liner goes – Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost!
