Well, I have been a great fan of Indian cricket team before the World Cup - every opponent seemed a piece of cake except England. Talking about the Indian Cricket Men's team fill us with pride. The Indian team was full of stars - each one had played a good hand in IPL. In practice matches too, they excelled. The one thing Indians were scared of was, some country having a really good day on may be a semi-final or final. The final or semi-final was kind of guaranteed in our minds. Pakistan - we never took seriously - a country whose sportspersons used to fight among each other and used to look up to India for money. Pakistan - a country against which our records in world cups said - 12 and nil .My friends at home had arranged a projector in home, drinks, barbeque, rice.
The stage was set for a feast. One of the first balls saw one of the strongest and dangerous T20 batsman Rohit Sharma yorked.
It was a beautiful swinging yorker - somewhat reminded us of how Amir struck Rohit in Champions Trophy final. Our jaws dropped but it was a long list to handle - Rahul, Virat, SKY, Pant, Jadeja , Pandya. Next over from Shaheen made Rahul miss the ball , which led its way onto stumps. Our worshipped openers had fallen. It seemed like someone shook the very spirit of India - the champions trophy final ghost had surfaced. A six from Surya kept us hopeful. But yes, Pakistan had won the first round until now. Still, we continued with our arrangements for the feast later. A long list . And there went the AB-in-making, SKY. 3 wickets scarcely have fallen for India in the first 6 overs in the last few years in a T20. But Virat was there . Somehow, with Pant and Virat contributions, we reached a respectable total of 150 around. We continued with our preparations, knowing that it is just matter of time when the batting of Pakistan would collapse.
Rijwan pulled the 3rd delivery from Bhuvi into the stands. That sent a shockwave through Kohli and India. Kohli panicked and got Bumrah throwing yorkers continuously , taking the surprise element out of picture. The Pakistani batsmen were ready - they were determined like James Bond remains determined in his movies. Babar and Rijwan cautiously handled Bumrah, Shami, the talked-about-debutant Varun in the first 6 overs. They showed their grit till they finished the job. The feast that we had arranged lost its charm. We , all 12 friends , switched off the laptop, ate in silence.
Call it anything that Indian players were not rested enough, but it was indeed a win of an ant over an elephant . Their determination had proved that anything is possible. They were ants in front of Indians , but still they came prepared, planned, determined. Indians were stars, but had not played in unison for quite some time. They could not find a way to stand as a team. It felt each component was a Mercedes Benz make but the final assembly of the car was done by Suzuki .It is rightly said ," Unity is strength."
One of the other things that surprised everyone was the evolution of South Africa. With a lot of drama , politics involved in SA team selections for T20 World Cup 2021,everyone had written SA off. SA selectors denied one of the greatest batsman, ABD to play the T20 world cup. They did not select Faf Du Plesis, Highest scorer of IPL 2021. They did not select Chris Morris, who is a very handy all-rounder in IPL. They did not take Imran Tahir, a good T20 spinner. They did not select them - it is not because their team already had a bunch of star players. They were not selected because of politics and only-god-knows-what-reasons. Apart from Rabada and Nortje in the bowling unit, none looked good in the batting segment.
They were asking to be crushed. But the young guns , led by Van Der Dussen in batting , a newly appointed captain, complemented by experience in bowling unit had some different plans - they gave Australia a run for the money in the first game. Post that match , they defeated everyone , even the country to make the boldest claim to world cup, England. They lost to Australia on a semi-final berth on net run rate issue. Again, it was an ant winning over an elephant.
Anything is possible. Even an ant , if plans the right strategy can kill an elephant. Universe provides weakness and strengths to everyone. Nobody can be god - They can always become enough skilled to understand that they are god but they become nothing than an elephant waiting to be killed by an ant to put them in their place.