In the final of the Asia Cup 2023, India defeated Sri Lanka one-sidedly by 10 wickets. This meant that Team India became Asia Cup champions for the eighth time. After India’s win, Sunil Gavaskar hit out at those who believed for even a second that the Indian team deliberately wanted to lose their Super 4 match against Sri Lanka so that Pakistan could not get a place in the final.
Last Wednesday, the match between India and Sri Lanka was the most even match of the Asia Cup 2023 where team India won by 41 runs but till the end both teams were in the game and it seemed like the Sri Lankan team would win the match. Can. In this game, Team India was restricted to 2013 runs. Dhananjay de Silva and Dunith Velalage then formed a brilliant partnership to take Sri Lanka ahead in the game. Afterwards, Pakistan fans claimed that Team India intentionally lost this match, thus eliminating the Pakistan team from the race for the final.
Gavaskar paid no attention to any of these outrageous claims and criticized the individuals for encouraging such a ridiculous thought process. After Pakistan were officially eliminated after losing the virtual semi-final against Sri Lanka, Gavaskar hoped that more conspiracy theories would be uncovered, but when Pakistan and its media took out all their anger on captain Babar Azam, he was not very surprised.
Gavaskar said: “This is a huge slap in the face to all the people across the western border who were shouting that India deliberately lost the game so that Pakistan could get a place in the final after 213 runs against Sri Lanka. “They would be naive , people also think about the possibility that if India had lost to Sri Lanka and then Pakistan had beaten Sri Lanka and the India vs Bangladesh match would have been eliminated, India would have reached the final. Then why should India intentionally lose to Sri Lanka? Fool”,
Gavaskar further wrote, “When Pakistan lost to Sri Lanka and were eliminated from the tournament, we expected more conspiracy theories blaming India for the defeat, but the surprises never stopped, so they forgot everything.” And focused on his captain Babar insulting Azam for his exit from the tournament.”
The former Indian captain’s thoughts were reminded of the time four years ago when similar allegations had marred Indian cricket. During the 2019 World Cup, India, who had already reached the semi-finals, played their last league match against England and a loss would have seen Pakistan eliminated from the tournament. Chasing 338 runs to win, India needed 104 runs from the last 10 overs as Kedar Jadhav and MS Dhoni made 71 runs in five overs, playing for run-rate instead of winning the match.
During their stay together at the goal area, they managed to play seven dot balls and hit 20 singles from 31 balls. Dhoni contributed 42 runs off 31 balls while Jadhav scored 12 runs off 13 balls in what can only be described as a strange phase of the game. Despite having five wickets in hand, India could only score 306 runs. Gavaskar emphasized this and urged Pakistan to step up instead of pointing fingers.
Gavaskar said: “Similar conspiracy theories emerged when India lost to England in the 2019 World Cup group game. There were claims that MS Dhoni of all people batted slowly on purpose. Anyone who knows MSD will confirm that they like doing this.” Do this. Take the game into the depths and then explode. England bowled brilliantly so he couldn’t do that at the time, but the idiots thought it was deliberate to deny them a place in the semi-final. It was done.
Explaining his stand, Gavaskar said: “Let us be clear and clear that World Cup teams will do everything to ensure they reach the final. His team’s progress depends on the other team. Why stay? Why not?” “They don’t win all the games and win the tournament themselves instead of pointing the finger at some other team? It would be painful to rely on India to qualify for the knockout stages of a tournament.”
