CRICKET: What did Gavaskar say on India becoming Asia Cup 2023 champions?
The Indian cricket team won the Asia Cup by defeating Sri Lanka in the final by 10 wickets. Before this, Team India had already reached the final by winning two consecutive matches in the Super-4 stage.
In their first match, India defeated Pakistan, and in the second match, they defeated Sri Lanka. However, India’s batting performance was not exceptional in the second match. If India had lost this match, Pakistan could have been eliminated from the tournament. After India’s innings ended, social media, especially from Pakistan was flooded with memes about match-fixing. In response to this incident, former captain Sunil Gavaskar has given a strong reply.
Sunil Gavaskar’s Strong Response: Sunil Gavaskar criticized those who had said that Team India intentionally wanted to lose to Sri Lanka in the Super-4 match at 213 runs so that Pakistan could be eliminated from the tournament. Gavaskar wrote in his column for Mid-Day, “It’s a resounding slap on the faces of all those who were shouting loudly after India was out for 213 against Sri Lanka, saying that India deliberately wanted to lose so that Pakistan would be out of the tournament. How ignorant and foolish these people are! These people didn’t even think about the possibility that if India had lost to Sri Lanka, and then Pakistan’s team had defeated Sri Lanka, India would not have qualified for the final. Why would India intentionally lose to Sri Lanka?”
Gavaskar further wrote, “When Pakistan lost to Sri Lanka and got eliminated from the tournament, we were hoping for some more conspiracy theories blaming India for the loss, but they all forgot about it and focused on blaming their captain Babar Azam for getting out. Similar conspiracy theories came up when India lost to England in the 2019 World Cup group stage. Allegations were made that Dhoni and others deliberately played slow. Those who know Dhoni will confirm that he likes to take the game deep and then explode. England bowled brilliantly, which is why they couldn’t do it, but fools thought it was done deliberately to knock them out of the semifinals.”
Team India’s One-Sided Win: Team India won the Asia Cup 2023 title in a one-sided manner. They defeated the Sri Lankan team in the final by 10 wickets. The Indian team achieved the target after dismissing Sri Lanka for just 50 runs in this match in only 37 balls, winning the Asia Cup trophy for the 8th time. Mohammed Siraj was the hero of India’s victory in this match, taking a total of 6 wickets.
