Cheers to tears

Does it seem too silly to cry over a cricket match For your emotions to spill out over the disappointment of a bunch of players in national colours you have nothing in common with except a passportAnd yet somehow the tears came alongEuphoria gave way to a mixture of resentment and hopelessness as hundreds of thousands of Indian fans poured out of the Motera stadium in silence contrasting the jubilant atmosphere about eight hours agoFor many of them Sundays humiliating sixwicket loss accomplished the unthinkable a disaster even worse than the last time they were stung by Australiarsquos ruthlessness Back then it was a 95run defeat in the semifinal with neither bowling nor batting clicking for India when it mattered the most This defeat may have been even more scarring because India a team that outplayed everyone till Sunday was torn to shreds at the worlds biggest cricket groundAnger and disappointment among the fans were so intense that it threatened to darken the national mood for some time to come There is a sense of desperation a tearyeyed Vidit Kulkarni who gave up his job to follow the Indian team all the way from Germanyrsquos Munich told MidDay It is something without explanation because it is just a cricket match but for all of us who stay abroad it is naturally a subject to talk about in lifeordeath terms We take huge pride in its success Everything is shattered now How would I face my colleagues thererdquoAlso ReadA bitter pill to swallowOnce again Indiarsquos World Cup ends in the dance the country has come to know better than any other The players had run out of road their legs burning and lungs heaving as they raged against the dying of the light with fingers already being pointed and blame assignedDiksha Seth who planned to lsquocelebrate through the night after Indias expected winrsquo said the Blue Army had far outperformed the low expectations of her when the tournament began They misread the pitch and blew their chances today They have been exceptional the whole tournament but at the end of the day they faltered in the crucial stage and now we lost another trophy This is by far our worst defeat against Australiardquo she lamentedHaving braved the long colourful and festive queues for hours early Sunday to get into the ground many started leaving the stadium in droves by the 35th over of Australias chase as the result became obvious Thousands meanwhile were left in frantic search of a new plan for the night aheadSheetal Bakshi who was inconsolable after Indiarsquos defeat couldnt pinpoint what went wrong with the team I am so upset right now that I do not wish to take any callsrdquo she said pointing to her ringing phone ldquoI want to go back to my hotel room to sleep and not think of this now if possible I had planned to explore the city for at least two days My flight tickets are done so I have to stay here nonetheless But I have lost the will to go out and explore Bakshi addedOutside the stadium premises on the packed arterial roads of Motera the mood was sombre and a far cry from the loud and excited atmosphere before the start of the match The country came to a standstill as 2pm approached with roads deserted and shopping centres and eateries abandoned as thousands paid over the odds for travel hotels and tickets because of high demandAlso Read India has something for West Indies fans to savourPerhaps many took this to be a magical chance that saw hope spring from the youth and positivity of a plucky side that came to believe in itself yet had a charm that made it so much more likeable than their recent predecessors But destiny deemed that they would never come close to the finish line though undefeated Indias chances of ending a global trophy drought since their 2013 Champions Trophy win went up in smoke once Travis Head got going with Marnus LabuschagneThe result hasnt gone our way and we know that we were not good enough on the day But Im proud of the team captain Rohit Sharma was quoted as saying With 240 on the board we wanted early wickets but credit to Travis Head and Marnus They put us completely out of the game and I thought the wicket got better to bat on under the lightsTheir ICC World Cup 2023 campaign ended with a familiar sight as Sharma left the field in tears reviving memories of the then captain MS Dhonirsquos sorrowful reaction to the teams exit in the 2015 World Cup semifinal Yet though downcast at their defeat Rohitrsquos men at least have the consolation of knowing that they did everything in their power to work a miracle and squeeze into the final stageBut destiny is a mysterious force that none can comprehend ldquoI hate that wordrdquo Kulkarni ranted ldquoBack then in 2015 I cried now I am furiousrdquo ldquoThere is no way we could have won today given the conditions brother Be calmrdquo said a passerby Kulkarni said the rout would radically change the way he saw the whole tournament The memory of this World Cup will always be tarnished now at least for me It will be remembered as a great tragedy he signed off