Cricket indeed is a funny game!
What’s amazing about this year’s world cup is that you don’t know who can beat whom. Yes, as a sport it should be like that only. Any team should be able to beat any team on any given day. But when you consider the quality of both sides, the history, the infrastructure and all the things are taken into account, you will know why this is termed as an upset. What’s even more amazing is that there have not just been one or two such incidents in this edition of the T20 World Cup.
It all started with Namibia defeating Sri Lanka on the very first day of the World Cup. There have been a lot of such games that followed suit after that. West Indies were knocked out by Ireland and did not even feature in the super 12. Now that’s something very hard to fathom considering that West Indies are the only nation who have won the T20 World Cup twice (more than anybody). But that’s the beauty of the game.
And then Ireland defeated the mighty England. Another huge upset which took the World by surprise is that Ireland defeated the mighty English on Australian soil in conditions which were alien to them. Yes, they needed a little help from the rain and the D/L coming into play. But it was a day to remember for all Ireland fans. They defeated this English team who have been one of the best white ball teams in the past 3-4 years and are also the current World Champions in the 50-over format.
And just when you thought that this world cup couldn’t give you any more surprises, there was another one waiting. This was something waiting in the shadows, something you wouldn’t have seen coming. Something South Africa definitely see coming and something which literally brought Pakistan back from the airport as they might already be booked to fly back to their country in the next few days. But the Netherlands had different plans for everybody.
Nobody thought of this as much of a contest. No matter how good the Netherlands were playing, this South African team seemed one of the dark horses to lift the World Cup. This is the same South African team that even defeated India and were on course to top Group 2. And then it happened – the biggest surprise of the tournament on the last day of the group stage. And Pakistan and Bangladesh had a literal quarterfinal to decide who would qualify for the semi-finals.
Cricket has been full of surprises this season and we love that about this game. It is indeed a funny game. But what’s even more fantastic is that the smaller team or the associate nations as they are called have shown that even they can be a match for the mighty bigger teams.
India, Pakistan, England & New Zealand have qualified for the semi-finals of the ICC T20 World Cup 2022. Who do you think will win? Do let us know in the comments below.
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