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India’s World Cup exit breaks a billion hearts
NEW DELHI: Indians reacted with shock and dismay on Wednesday after their stunning World Cup exit, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailing the team’s ‘fighting spirit’ and his main rival saying a billion hearts were broken.
Near the end of the semi-final against New Zealand, with India still in with a chance, a crowd of some 400-500 fans cheered and danced at every big hit on a big screen at an amphitheatre surrounded by offices in Gurgaon outside Delhi.
But when Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India’s warhorse, was spectacularly run out by Martin Guptill’s direct hit to follow Ravindra Jadeja back to the pavilion, the fans knew the game was as good as over and most walked out, devastated.
“We are feeling sad, and you can see me, I feel like crying,” said office worker Neeraj Singh, sobbing, after New Zealand’s dramatic 18-run win. “We love Team India, we love Kohli, we love Mahi [MS Dhoni] and forever we will love cricket. And like our boss Kohli has said, Dhoni will forever be our captain in our hearts,” he said.
Fellow fan Prabhdeep Singh said that after India lost early wickets, including that of captain Virat Kohli to reduce the two-time champions to 24 for four, Dhoni and Jadeja had given them hope of victory.
“We were thinking we will get the World Cup, but how can I say, we are feeling very bad and sad now,” he said.
Jayati Arora, another office worker, agreed. “At the start [of the match] I didn’t think India would win but then our hopes were increasing. But at the last we lost the match, so I feel very low and sad.”
Modi said he was still proud.
“A disappointing result, but good to see #TeamIndia’s fighting spirit till the very end,” the prime minister said on Twitter. “India batted, bowled, fielded well throughout the tournament, of which we are very proud. Wins and losses are a part of life.”
Cricketing great V.V.S. Laxman tweeted his congratulations to New Zealand captain Kane Williamson and the Black Caps for making it to a second successive World Cup final.
“Ravindra Jadeja along with Dhoni fought brilliantly and got India so close but NZ were brilliant with the new ball and that was decisive,” he said.
Rahul Gandhi, until recently the head of the main opposition Congress party, said: “Though they’re a billion broken hearts tonight, Team India, you put up a great fight and are deserving of our love & respect.”
The Times of India said on its website that New Zealand had ‘stunned’ the national side, calling the victory target ‘modest’.
The Hindustan Times said that Jadeja’s ‘heroics’ were ‘in vain’ while the Indian Express ran with ‘Heartbreak’ and a photo of Kohli trudging up the stairs at Old Trafford, bat under his arm, after his early dismissal.
Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2019
Comments (42) Closed
Well played NZ, commiserations to India.... Well, we'll still savour the 3rd place in commonwealth games, fine showing in the Asian games, the occasional medals in Olympics, athletics world cups et all along with a clutch of world champs in other sports....head high as always... Thanks to Pak fans-our bros....good luck to you too...
Good. India deserved it.
That is true that "billion broken hearts". But then more than that are also "jubilant" as well.
Billion plus hearts are praying for New Zealand, Afghanistan, England, Bangladesh etc.,to win against Pakistan today Good Luck New Zealand, Afghanistan........ your Indian fan. That's what I red each day Pakistan played
That was not very nice to say.
IndoPak Blood Brothers 4 Life@
They had become arrogant as a nation that their team could beat anyone.
Indians have no sportsman spirit, ground was empty even before half an hour of the end of the match.
Well done team Black Caps. You have won the hearts of 200million Pakistanis.
Atleast Dawn is not biased here unlike few pakistanis in other articles celebrating Indias failure. All those folks are really brain hammered thinking India lost purposely against England sorry your team didnt improve NRR post WI debacle primary reason for knockout. If you dont address real reason and look for excuses you have no right to complain. India lost due to top order failure,fragile middle order & batting second post heavy rainy day pitch slowed giving advantage to bowlers.
The winner takes it all,The loser standing small,Beside the victory,That's a destiny!
Arrogance will always lead to failure
Rohit just missed a double century by 199 runs.
Was optimistic regarding only Asian team to take trophy to home,hard luck for indian team.Best of luck for the future.
Poetic justice or Karma call it what you like.
80% of Lord's Final tickets were bought by Indian fans. Now available for sale (black). This is called Overconfidence.
Overrated Kohli and IPL players. Repeat of Champions Trophy.
Who cares? However, good wishes and luck to England.
TV breaking Ceremony will be start very soon
India should have made effort to win against England ... an old saying as you sow shall you reap ....
A better team has won. All in the game, no question of breaking our hearts. Next time we will see.
New Zealand proved the better side ...... on that day.
How could they intentionally lose against Eng to keep Pak out. This bad intention is gonna haunt them for long time.
Good India is out. They are trouble makers.
India defeat leave 1.3 billion broken hearts .
India victory would have left 21 crore broken hearts.
@Sohail , Still we are thousands of years ahead than your players
@Patriot, We are not like Pakistanis
We win, we lose.. Happens.. Yes, heart broken .We have been playing well in last 4-5 years. We will get there again. NZ made it to final two consecutive times, they deserve the title this time. Good luck NZ. Well played, deserved to win.
@Patriot, we don't break TVs here.
@Patriot,
'TV breaking Ceremony will be start very soon'
That ceremony was over on Ind Pk match day.
My heartiest congratulations to NZ for defeating India!
@Maria, how do you know that? Just shows your mind's reflection
@Patriot, no, Indians are sensible.
@Ilyas, That's your only solace now.
@Patriot, Its customary in Pakistan. Not in India. We are proud of our team. The best team won. We were not best. Simple. Why should we break the TV
Billions are celebrating India’s humiliating defeat at the hand of New Zealand as well.
@Jatin Kondhalkar, We rejoice the defeat of Indian team. Indian team got what deserved.
I wonder what happened to the best batting lineup in the tournament... it was exposed for what it was, overrated. And kudos to Captain Dhoni for that surgical strike.
Please remember that at leasr half of the population in India does not have electricity, running water, gas, bathroom plumbing etc. and therefore, no televisions at home. As such, the title of this news item is incorrect and misleading, to say the least.
Winners were playing. Loosers were in there country already
@Syed Ghazanfar Abbas, didn’t know Pakistan’s populations was more than a billion!
The team that believed in coincidence, Relied on performance of other teams rather than their own, Depends on winning of other teams to reach semifinals has finally found a moment to cherish that too because of loss of some other team. Feeling happy that they at least got some happiness, no matter out of someone else's loss.
Wow! It's surprising to see so much interest from Pakistani people in India's loss. I can tell you India is not that obsessed with their own teams loss. The country has moved on within a day. It's just game.. you win some and lose some.. period. People who criticise India deliberately lost against England then they haven't seen other matches of India. India and especially Dhoni played similar knocks in all games including scoring 1 run against Pakistan.
@Shakeel Ahmed, next time If you promise to play well may be we will meet in semi finals.