Mumbai: Zimbabwe pulled off the biggest upset of the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup when they stunned cricketing giants Australia by 23 runs in Colombo but a Zimbabwean victory has elated Indian cricket fans as much as supporters of the African nation.
And there is a little but very crucial stat behind the joy of Indian cricket lovers after the shock victory Zimbabwe at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.
The last two times Zimbabwe beat Australia in cricket World Cups, India have gone on to become World Champions and clinch the titles and this was in the 1983 Prudential World Cup and the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007.
The stat was brought into the domain of social media by former India cricketer Virender Sehwag who posted the interesting trivia on his Instagram handle.
Coming to the game in Colombo, Zimbabwe were facing an injury depleted Australia, who were without their pace trio of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc, but a terrific all-round effort ensured the former T20 World Cup winners were consigned to defeat.
This was the second time Zimbabwe had slayed the heavyweight Australian team in the shortest format of the sport after the 2007 edition.
Australia struggled in the bowling department and could scalp only two wickets in Zimbabwe’s batting effort where they posted a total of 169.
In chase of a competitive 170, Australia were rocked by Blessing Muzarabani and Brad Evans, who picked up four and three wickets respectively.
Except for the efforts of Matt Renshaw, who slammed 65 off 44 balls, and Glenn Maxwell’s 31 none of the other Australian batters could take the attack to the Zimbabweans as they capitulated to 146 in 19.3 overs.
The T20 World Cup had come close to seeing a few upsets when Netherlands ran Pakistan close and Nepal gave England an almighty scare at the Wankhede Stadium but neither could get over the line and emerge victors.
Zimbabwe have done themselves a great deal of benefit by the upset win and also thrown open their group into chaos with qualification into the Super Eights looking interesting.
The joy Zimbabwe’s win has given Indian cricket fans is an added bonus.
