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So I thought I would directly update after the Finals and split this CWC Thoughts series with 3 updates since this would be India's third cup, but I can't hold myself back from expressing all the emotions from watching the game. I guess this works too since it will be India's third World Cup and it took 3 stages for India to get to the Final and grab that trophy 🤞🏼
New Zealand as the opposition in a knockout game especially after the 2019 WC semis was nerve-racking, I was scared before the match started, but when we won the toss and decided to bat first a small part of that nervousness settled.
The start Rohit and Shubman gave eased some of the nerves, I wish Rohit got his 50. Throughout the tournament, Rohit may not have gotten too many milestones but the aggressive approach he has been playing with has only helped the team and given us great starts that the rest of the order was able to capitalize on. Shubman too has played very sensibly and had he not had to retire out you never know it could have been three 100s!
The King getting his 50th ODI 100 at Wankhede, breaking his idol's record in front of him, at his home ground with his wife present in the stadium was a wonderful moment! That smile on his face and the celebration spoke volumes of what this meant to him. As fans of ICT, we could not be prouder to call this man our hero, and I am glad that we watch the game at a time when players like Virat and Rohit are playing at their finest. (I wish I watched cricket when Sourav, Sachin, and Rahul played)
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This scorecard is a thing of beauty! The whole top order contributed and got India to a comfortable score of 397. After the 1st innings, I thought this would be a tall order for NZ to chase and India would get early wickets and we would win comfortably.
But how can a semi-final against NZ not be a nail-biter? When the bowling started I was convinced Bumrah would get a wicket on the first ball, but when it went for a 4, all the nerves started kicking back in. And the next five overs went for 30 runs, I was honestly a bit scared that if the openers settled down then it would be difficult to defend especially since Wankhede is a smaller ground and favors batting. But then in came Shami and got us the breakthroughs that we needed. At this point, I thought we could relax a bit now, but NZ had other plans. The partnership between Williamson and Mitchell for 24 overs, putting together an 181-run partnership, again made us fans bite our nails and hope for a wicket! And again this time Shami came and got us another two wickets.
After those two wickets there was a partnership forming but in came Boom Boom Bumrah who got Glenn Phillips, The next over Kuldeep got a wicket, and then Shami and Siraj cleaned up NZ's lower order.
Shami has been exceptional this whole tournament but his performance from today's game is one to go down in the books. 7 wickets in a single game is insane, every time India needed a wicket and saw a partnership building, Shami came and got us wickets.
Siraj is another bowler who has been exceptional, he may have only gotten one wicket today, but his bowling has been top-notch. especially the last over of his spell 7 runs and a wicket.
Kuldeep and Jaddu too bowled really well! Kuldeep getting that wicket in his last over and being the most economical Indian bowler was amazing! Sir Jadeja, what do we say about him? Great bowling and fielding, those three catches back-to-back were a delight to watch. Also, KL's keeping just keeps getting better with each game.
The whole tournament the fielding has been amazing but today it was not completely up to the mark, but the batting performance, bowling performance, and the cushion of runs we had took us through to the Finals.
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Ahmedabad here come our Men in Blue! Wishing our Team the best of luck! Let's go play hard, put our best foot forward, and bring the World Cup home 🤞🏼
P.S. cannot wait for the dressing room awards and behind-the-scenes!
