Only team to win the T20 World Cup twice, West Indies suffered an embarrassing knockout in the qualifying stage of the ongoing edition in Australia on Friday. West Indies were humbled by Ireland in the biggest upset of the tournament till now. 

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

The Caribbean team exited the World Cup after leaving key players out like Sunil Narine, Andre Russell and Shimron Hetmyer. While Narine and Russell were not selected, Hetmyer was on the squad to play but lost his chance under bizarre circumstances when he missed the flight to Australia. Consequently, the explosive batter was replaced in the T20 World Cup squad by Shamarh Brooks. 

Check how Twitterati reacted with Shimron Hetmyer memes after West Indies’ stunning and early T20 World Cup exit:

As West Indies bowed out early, it was Ireland’s 32-year-old T20 World Cup veteran opener Paul Stirling who did the job with an unbeaten 66 from 48 balls, taking his team comfortably home. Ireland have reached the second for the T20 World Cup only for the second time in seven outings. 

On the other hand, the most successful side in T20 World Cup history, the West Indies could win only one of their 3 group stage matches. Without stars like Hetmyer, Russell and Narine, the Nicholas Pooran-led side looked out of sorts. They had also suffered an embarrassing 42-run defeat against Scotland and only won against Zimbabwe, beating them by 31 runs.  

“It's tough, we haven't batted well in this tournament at all. On a good batting surface making 145 made it really difficult for the bowlers....We have disappointed our fans and ourselves. Definitely hurting,” skipper Pooran said after West Indies’ exit from the T20 World Cup.

READ | Watch: Virat Kohli fumes at fans as they yell 'out of stadium' while Team India's net session