The impossible lost of 2023 world cup
The story begins in 2023. This year, the ODI World Cup was scheduled to be held, which is the biggest festival in cricket. India had been eagerly awaiting this World Cup for four years. In 2019, Rohit Sharma had scored a lot of runs, including five centuries, but India still lost. This time, Rohit was going to be the captain, so India was even more excited about this World Cup. The country hosting the World Cup usually won it, as seen in 2011, 2015, and 2019. With this in mind, all the Indian players were making a great comeback. Shreyas Iyer and Bumrah had returned to the team, and everyone felt that India would win the World Cup. Before the World Cup, India played a series against Australia and won 2-1. In one of the matches of that series, India scored almost 400 runs. Whether it was bowling, batting, or captaincy, India was at its peak in every aspect of the game. And then, the 2023 World Cup began, with India's first match being against Australia.What happened here was that India, bowling first, bowled out Australia for 199. After the Indian bowlers had done their job, it was the Indian batsmen's turn. When India came out to bat, Rohit Sharma, Ishan kishan, and Shreyas Iyer all got out for zero runs. It seemed like the Indian batting, which had been playing so well, had suddenly collapsed.
What had happened to them in the World Cup? But Virat Kohli and KL Rahul single-handedly won the match. They had a brilliant partnership, and India won the match comfortably. India's next match was against Afghanistan, and Rohit Sharma scored a century, and India won that match comfortably as well. Then came the third match against Pakistan, and India won that match easily. No one really had to do anything special, but India's problems started in the fourth match. During the match against Bangladesh, Hardik Pandya got injured. After that, things got worse for India. They won that match, but the next match was very important for them. Everyone started worrying about the rest of the World Cup. The team management was in a lot of trouble.
The management thought that since they had lost one all-rounder, Hardik Pandya, they would have to drop another. They dropped Shardul Thakur as well. Instead of having two all-rounders, they decided to bring in a specialist batsman and a specialist bowler. This meant the inclusion of Mohammed Shami and Suryakumar Yadav. Everyone thought this decision was wrong; they felt India might collapse. This was because the all-rounder contributed with both bat and ball. Later, it turned out that this decision was even better. After Hardik's departure, Shami came in. And with Shami in the team, India started winning matches more easily, and even convincingly. In the fifth match, Shami made his debut and took 5 wickets. In the sixth match, India was all out for 229 runs against England. Everyone thought India would lose this match, but Shami took 4 wickets for 22 runs in 7 overs, and India won the match by 100 runs. India had defeated everyone, but there was one team that everyone thought could beat them, and that was South Africa. Quinton de kock was scoring a lot of runs for South Africa, and they had even scored 400 runs in one match, so everyone thought South Africa could beat India.
India batted first and posted a score of 326 on the scoreboard. Everyone expected South Africa to chase down the target, but they were bowled out for just 83 runs. South Africa lost by the biggest margin against India. The worrying thing was that India was also number one in the 2019 World Cup. They were dominating the tournament. But then, they lost in the semi-finals to New Zealand. And here, too, India's semi-final match was against New Zealand. Looking at India's history, they tend to choke in knockout matches. Everyone felt that the biggest problem was the semi-finals; that's where things always went wrong. When India's match against New Zealand came on November 15th, the Indian batsmen made it clear that this time, they weren't going to choke.
Then came November 19th, and what everyone feared happened—India was completely out of contention. Australia bowled out India for 241 runs, and it seemed all hope was lost. However, India had previously won a match in this tournament against England, even after being bowled out for 229, and had won by 100 runs. After Australia reached 241, they lost three wickets for just 47 runs. Everyone thought India had the match in the bag. But then Travis Head, who had a hand injury, came to bat. He played a magnificent innings of 137 runs, and Australia won the World Cup.
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