It's all but over for the Indian team in the ongoing ICC Men's T20 World Cup two games into the tournament. It was a thrashing as New Zealand restricted India to just 110 runs thanks to Ravindra Jadeja's cameo in the end and chased down the total like a stroll in the park, boosting their chances of qualification in the semi-finals.
The famed batting line-up of the men in blue just collapsed whether it was a lack of clarity in how to approach the innings or whether to save wickets or go from ball one. KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma helped them to almost get through the powerplay after the Indian team had lost their new opener Ishan Kishan in the third over of the innings, but they couldn't as Rahul pulled a short delivery from Tim Southee straight to the fielder at deep square leg.
This just followed a sad and unfortunate trend as either dot balls were lining up or the Indian batters were finding the fielders with a thread-in-needle-like precision. Rohit Sharma after playing a few dot balls tried to hit Ish Sodhi out of the attack and straight to the long-on fielder. Virat Kohli did the same, very uncanny of him as he too holed out at long-on.
Every batter kept coming in and either found himself in a rut or the fielders. Ravindra Jadeja in the end with an unbeaten knock of 26 runs helped India's score go beyond 100, which looked near-impossible at that point, that woeful an innings it was.
111 was never going to be challenging and Daryl Mitchell, New Zealand's new opener came out all guns blazing and the low score provided him the freedom. He went after Indian spinners and the rest was calmly handled by skipper Kane Williamson as they won with 33 balls to spare.
The Indian cricket fans naturally disappointed were finding it tough to fathom this loss as it was a shattering one, one which has almost knocked the men in blue out of the tournament. Here are some of the reactions:
