OYEEEE India ka match aaj aa gaya OYEEEEE!
In last night’s ICC T20 World Cup, NZ crushed SA by 9 wickets in Kolkata (their largest victory margin to date) and produced one of the tournament’s all-time destructive innings.
Rizzz bro peak rizz, New Zealand!
Almost immediately following the conclusion of the 1st semi-final, focus turned to the 2nd semi-final match-up between India and England in Mumbai. With a spot in the final against NZ up for grabs, the hype around the game has escalated dramatically; much of the buildup can be seen on Reddit!
Finn Allen’s Record-Breaking Century Pummels SA
SA came into the semi-final as arguably one of, if not THE, most consistent sides of the entire tournament, having gone through the group stage unbeaten. However, NZ emphatically turned this script on its head.
Waqt badal diya, jazbaat badal diye bhai!
In the T20 world cup semifinals, South Africa scored 169 runs batting first with contributions from Marco Jansen (55 off 30) and Dewald Brevis (34 ). Throughout New Zealand’s innings, wickets fell and the pressure mounted and consequently, South Africa couldn’t get their score to exceed 170. SIGH!
As soon as New Zealand opened their batting innings with Finn Allen and Tim Seifert, they went after the South African bowling. After only six overs of the power play, New Zealand was already at 84. CHAK DE NEW ZEALAND!
The innings were basically over for South Africa after New Zealand made their runs in the power play.
Although Seifert contributed significantly with his 58 runs off 33 balls, the evening was all about Allen.
Allen Bhai, ek hi dil hai, aur woh maine Kohli vai ko diya hua hai, aap mat jeeto please.
He scored an incredible 100 runs off 33 balls with 10 fours and 8 sixes; a new record for the fastest century in Men’s T20 World Cup history.
With Allen’s momentum, it took South Africa more time to respond than it took New Zealand to make their runs. New Zealand ended their innings with 173 runs in only 12.5 overs for a nine-wicket victory with 43 balls remaining. Many people were shocked by the outcome, especially because South Africa had been one of the strongest teams in the tournament.
But jaha matter bade hote hain, waha New Zealand waale khade hote hain.
Reddit LOSES It
As soon as the match concluded, Reddit was inundated with fan reactions usually attempting to process what they had just experienced.
Most of the comments were relating to how one-sided the chase had ended up being.
One post stated:
“Missed the match, wow what happened here? I thought SA were the favorites and they’ve been rolled over?!”
Another user referenced to the poor performance saying;
“Jesus, we were thrashed. Well done New Zealand.”
In addition, several people had commented that most people thought that South Africa would get to the finals.
“Almost everyone thought SA will go to finals but NZ really played well and defeated the confident side.”
The innings of Allen also helped trigger comparisons to other T20 knockout statistics. One post read:
““Finn Allen innings reminded me of that brutal Alex Hales show against India.”
There were also comments being made about how fast the semi-final concluded.
“NZ vs SA ended so fast even the sledge thread is 12 hours earlier.”
There was also a lot of sympathy for the country of South Africa, who now have an even longer wait for a men’s World Cup title.
“I do feel bad for this great set of SA players though
Others simply stated “RIP SA”.
All eyes on IND vs ENGLAND (dhak dhak happening)
The stakes are clear, the victor of this semi-final will advance to meet New Zealand for the title on March 8.
The contest is also fuelled further by the developing rivalry between the two sides, as this will be the third year running they have met at this stage in a T20 World Cup. On each occasion in recent tournaments, one team has knocked the other out.
So, it’s finally that season where my mental health depends on these random boys from India.
Suryakumar Yadav will captain an aggressive batting-focused Indian XI along with a very pace-heavy bowling attack.
The likely Line-up for India is:
Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah & Varun Chakravarthy.
With Harry Brook as the captain of a powerful England white-ball line-up that includes players like Jos Buttler, Phil Salt, Sam Curran, Will Jacks & Jofra Archer.
Both sides have plenty of attacking options and can produce another high-scoring match. Mere ko toh aisa dhak-dhak horela hai.
Weather & Pitch Conditions In Mumbai
The weather fortunately appears unlikely to play a role in this match’s outcome.
Forecasts indicate there will be no rain and that there will be clear skies over Mumbai, so barring any miracles of modern science, this semi-final should be able to go on uninterrupted.
That said, the coastal conditions typically found along India’s west coast will still create some possible issues for both teams as the evening progresses.
The humidity should continue to increase as the night continues and dew could cause problems towards the end of the game.
Traditionally, the Wankhede pitch is good for batters. It has nice long bounce and short boundaries, which allow batters to hit aggressively when they are batting.
Another high-scoring game could take place here.
Reddit Is DRAMATIC ATP, To Say The Least
Online build-up seems like there may be some great fireworks during this game.
Discussions on Reddit about this semifinal game have given me some drama, to say the least.
A few of the Indian fans say that with New Zealand’s dominating win, this has put more pressure on them.
“Damn now I fear NZ, in addition to England.”
However, many others have reminded us that, to get to NZ, we be needing to defeat England first.
“Bruh first we gotta beat England.”
Some of the comments have been comparing players in a good portion of humorous ways as to how the two players will matchup, such as:
“Battle between the law of averages: Abhishek vs. Jos Buttler.”
Another fan mentioned this game by using one word:
“One of the all-time games.”