Sports
Rohit Sharma: The Indian captain who lost cricket World Cup but won hearts
Millions of Indians cried along with cricket captain Rohit Sharma on Sunday as he walked off the field, trying to hold back his tears.
His team had just lost the cricket World Cup final to Australia, prolonging India’s painful wait for the glory since 2011.
This was arguably his best shot at winning the coveted trophy – he will be 40 years old in 2027, when the tournament will be held next. In theory, Rohit could still play in the next World Cup and give it another try. But the pain of losing at home is likely to linger for a long time.
When India won the trophy in front of an overjoyed crowd in Mumbai in 2011, Rohit was not part of the team. He has been vocal about his disappointment at his exclusion at the time. It would have been poetic justice if he had won on Sunday, not just playing in a home World Cup but also leading his side – that wasn’t meant to be.
But a discussion of just the final will not give you the complete Rohit Sharma story from this World Cup. Look closer and you will see a player who was absolutely sure about his ability to play selfless and fearless cricket in the tournament.
As an opener, he was expected to give his side a flying start and take the wind out of the opposition’s attack. He did that effortlessly. Even in the final, he got off to a fast start. At one point, India were scoring at the rate of 10 runs per over.
Some former Indian cricketers have criticised Rohit for losing his wicket to a rash shot in the finals. They argue that it was the match’s turning point.That may well be true but by then, Rohit had already done what he did in so many matches earlier – he had set up a platform for others to build the innings on. But after he departed, the other batters just choked in front of a spirited and tactical Australia bowling attack.
Let’s rewind a bit.
In the group stages, Pakistan set a target of 191 for India to chase. It looked like a sub-par total but then Pakistan had a dangerous bowling attack including Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf and Hasan Ali.
Matches between arch-rivals Pakistan and India are a sporting spectacle but they also put players under extreme pressure.
Rohit led from the front and scored a brisk 86 off 63 deliveries, effectively ending Pakistan’s hopes of winning the game. He scored more than 40 runs seven times in the tournament, converting three of them into half-centuries. One could argue that he failed to turn these brisk starts into big scores.
But that would be an oversimplification. As he mentioned in different press conferences, every player in the team had clearly defined roles, and his was to be the destructor.
India didn’t lose any match until the finals and their success hugely relied on Rohit’s spirited starts which allowed time and pace to players like Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer to take the matches deep and put big totals on the board.
Rohit could have easily slowed down after reaching the 40s for bigger scores but that simply wasn’t his role. He was tasked to pace his innings according to the conditions, regardless of where his personal score stood.
India’s dominating batting line-up also allowed him to play freely. He knew that the batters who followed him were more than capable of putting the opposition under pressure.
While Rohit the batter has been a revelation in this tournament, his leadership deserves equal praise. His approach as a batter also inspired his crafty tactics as a captain. He earned the respect and trust of his team-mates and support staff, including head coach Rahul Dravid.
His bowling changes and fielding placements were astute and well-timed. When Pakistan were scoring at a brisk pace, he brought Mohammed Siraj back into the attack. Siraj had previously leaked 76 runs against Afghanistan and failed to pick up a wicket. A good captain knows his strategy well, but a great captain knows his players even better.
Babar Azam and Muhammad Rizwan had put together a stand of 81and were threatening to take the game away until Siraj broke their partnership.
Rohit also stood firmly behind his players when India were not doing well. He agreed with Dravid’s strategy of believing in the process and not letting results affect the team.
But sporting triumphs don’t happen in a vacuum.
The coach-captain duo worked hard in the background for almost two years with an eye on the World Cup. India entered the final undefeated, a result of their patient and astute planning.
Rohit backed players like Iyer, KL Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav when they were not doing well, and they repaid their captain’s faith with match-winning performances in the World Cup.
The loss in the final would hurt Rohit, his team and Indian cricket fans for a long time. But it takes nothing away from the captain’s achievements.
He truly is the unsung hero of the tournament and could still make it to India’s World Cup squad four years later. It may sound difficult but then sporting glories are all about making impossible dreams come true.
Rohit will surely heal, rebuild and come back stronger because he knows no other way. But for now, the World Cup trophy is still painfully out of his grasp.
(BBC)
Hosts Sri Lanka made a winning start to their Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group IV campaign, edging out Qatar 2-1 in a closely contested opening-day tie at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association courts in Colombo on Wednesday.
The visitors struck first when Mubarak Alharrasi defeated Sri Lanka’s Apna Perera 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 in a hard-fought opening singles encounter, giving Qatar an early 1-0 lead.
Sri Lanka bounced back in the second singles as Thehan Wijemanne produced a spirited comeback to overcome Mossa Alharrasi 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. After dropping the opening set, Wijemanne showed great composure to win the next two sets and level the tie at 1-1.
The decisive doubles match proved to be a tense affair, with Apna Perera returning to partner Saha Kapilasena. The Sri Lankan duo held their nerve in two tie-breaks to defeat Jabar Al Mutawan and Mossa Alharrasi 7-6, 7-6, sealing the tie 2-1 for the hosts.
Sri Lanka’s ability to recover from the opening singles defeat highlighted the team’s resilience as Wijemanne’s comeback victory and the doubles pair’s clutch performance ensured a successful start to their campaign. The hosts will now look to build on the opening-day victory as they continue their quest for promotion in the Asia/Oceania Group IV competition.
MCA PREMIER LEAGUE 2026
A 253 run sixth wicket partnership between Vinuka Rubasinghe [142 runs off 124 balls] and Lahiru Samarakoon [177 runs off 77 balls] set the foundation for David Pieris Group of Companies to amass 411/7 against DFCC Bank in the opening match of the Mercantile Cricket Association’s Premier League Cricket tournament played at the Thurstan Ground on Thursday [23]
Lahiru smashed 18 fours and 13 sixes in his 177 while Vinuka smashed 16 fours and 3 sixes in his 124 ball 142. Nipun Premarathne, Sandaru Wickremarathne and Raveen de Silva captured two wickets each.
In the chase Mihiranga Nimsara and Tharindu Nirmal captured three wickets each to restrict DFCC Bank to 257/8 in their 50 overs. Raveen de Silva top scored with 79 off 103 balls while Pavan Pathirajah chipped in with 65 runs.
SCORES:
David Pieris Group of Companies
411/7in 50 overs [Vinuka Rubasinghe 142, Lahiru Samarakoon 177; Nipun Premarathne 2-67, Sandaru Wickremarathne 2-65, Raveen de Silva 2-79]
DFCC Bank
252/8 in 50 overs [Raveen de Silva 79, Pavan Pathiraja 56 ; Mihiranga Nimsara 3-57 , Tharindu Nirmal 3-35]
Reeza Hendricks scored his second fifty of the tournament and took his team over the line without getting dismissed for the second time as Dambulla Sixers defeated Galle Gallants at their home, Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium, in the eighth match of the Lanka Premier League.
Hendricks came into bat at number three in the third over after Niroshan Dickwella departed and soon saw the back of Sahibzada Farhan as well. He then stitched a quickfire 36-run stand with Pavan Rathnayake and then took the game away in a 69-run stand with Marques Ackerman.
Rathnayake took the attack to the impact sub Eshan Malinga in the last over of the powerplay. Before that, he had a single six in his LPL career in 7 innings; then he deposited three maximums in a single over against Malinga, ending the powerplay at 70/3, as he departed for a 11-ball 29 on the last ball.
Hendricks, joined by his countryman, Ackerman, took the team’s total to 102/3 inside 10 overs, as the latter hit a massive six against Akif Javed in the 10th over to cross the 100-run mark.
The flow of boundaries continued as Hendricks and Ackerman continued with massive sixes from both batters in back-to-back overs against Malinga and Mehidy Hasan Miraz, leaving the equation required to 54 runs off 48 balls.
Ackerman was finally dismissed as Karunaratne showed up with the ball in hand as well, breaking the 69-run partnership for the fourth wicket. Hendricks still did not stop as he reached his second half-century of the season off just 30 deliveries.
The new batter Gulbadin Naib hit a couple of straight maximums against Mohammad Nawaz, ending the expensive over which had already seen Hendricks start with back-to-back boundaries, leaving just 16 runs off the last five overs, which also kickstarted Dambulla Sixers’ power blast as well.
Gulbadin hit 3 maximums in his six-ball cameo to finish the game in style with 23 balls remaining, chasing down the target set by Galle Gallants with ease.
At the start of the match, Galle Gallants’ Sam Harper (40 off 22 balls including 3 sixes and 3 fours) and Charith Asalanka (25 off 19 balls; 2 fours, 1 six) started well after losing Lasith Croospulle in the third over to Vishwa Lahiru. The duo gathered 64 runs off 37 balls for the second-wicket.
Chamika Karunaratne rescued the innings after Harper was bowled by Gulbadin Naib in the ninth over and Asalanka was caught and bowled by Ackerman.
While wickets fell on the other end, skipper Dasun Shanaka came and arrested the collapse with a cameo. Later he made full use of the power blast’s first over, scoring 15 runs before Farooqi came back with a double-wicket over, dismissing Karunaratne for 45 runs off 30 deliveries and Mohammad Nawaz for two.
Shanaka chipped in with 20 runs off 10 balls, while Mehidy Hasan Miraz’s 16 runs off 13 balls took Gallants’ total to 178/8 in 20 overs.
Brief Scores
Dambulla Sixers
won by 6 wickets with 23 balls to spare
Galle Gallants:
178/8 in 20 overs [Chamika Karunaratne: 45 (30), Sam Harper: 40 (22), Fazalhaq Farooqi: 3/39 (4) Marques Ackerman: 2/27 (3)]
Dambulla Sixers:
180/4 in 16.1 overs [Reeza Hendricks: 64* (37), Marques Ackerman: 35 (25)
Pavan Rathnayake:
29 (11), Chamika Karunaratne: 1/7 (1), Dasun Shanaka: 1/18 (2)]
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