Eight main reasons why India lost to Australia in the 2015 World Cup semis!

To say that Australia played better than India is missing the real reasons for the defeat. And the reasons are many, but we look at the 8 main reasons that led to India’s defeat at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on Thursday.

1. Anuskha Sharma

We all knew what the presence of Anushka Sharma did to Virat Kohli on India’s tour of England, yet she made it to Australia at the most inopportune time. Her presence Down Under saw the team lose focus. And how did Anushka’s presence help? Well, he dropped a catch, conceded seven runs in his only over and then scored just one run when the team was set a target of 329.

2. BCCI

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is to be blamed. If the Board of Control for Cricket in India did not allow so many Australians playing in the premier T20 league in the world, the Aussies would not have been familiar with the Indian players. There is no bigger proof than the Pakistanis. They are not allowed to play in the IPL and India has beaten them every single time in the World Cup.

3. MS Dhoni

When he knew he lost the toss he should have asked for re-toss like Kumar Sangakkara in the 2011 World Cup final.  He should have said that he called correctly and the match referee Ranjan Madugulle did not hear him because of the noise generated by the strong Indian presence inside the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). And we know how big a factor toss was in this match.

4. Suresh Raina

What was the need to break the news of his forthcoming wedding when the team was focused on winning the World Cup? Apparently some key members of the Indian team wanted to come back home because their dress designer said he can’t give the wedding attire if they return after the final on March 29 as there was too short a time to take their measurements and stich before the wedding scheduled for April 3.

5. Mohammad Shami

Ahead of the big match, he shouldn’t have read anything what the media was saying. But he went online and read that there is no electricity back home in Uttar Pradesh’s Sahaspur-Alinagar villagefor his father to watch the live telecast of the semis. Shami was in tears reading his family’s plight and was in a terrible state of mind just before the match. It upset him so much that he was not the bowler he has been right through the tournament.

6. Ravi Shastri

Like in the case of Anushka Sharma, India did not learn their lessons. India were on a winning streak because Shastri was not wielding the TV microphone so far in the tournament. But he did so on Thursday morning, cocky as ever, and the team lost.  Call it superstition or call it common sense, but Shastri contributed to India’s defeat.

7. Star Sports

The TV channell needlessly put pressure on India by starting the campaign #WontGiveItBack. As the pressure kept on mounting on Team India against Australia, the players were wondering the kind of ridicule they will now be subjected to because of that cocky slogan.

8. Selection committee

For not including Yuvraj Singh. How could they forget that it was Yuvraj who won the match for India in the 2011 World Cup? Australia are the strongest of the teams in the 2015 World Cup and Yuvraj should have been included for at least one match. But Roger Binny got not one but two of his family members for the World Cup!

Please note this is a tongue-in-cheek article written purely because Indian cricket fans will invariably look out for reasons than concede the fact that the other team played better.