India’s victory over Scotland came by so quick that many were looking for statistics related to the quickest win, the fastest knock, the biggest victory… Listening to the discussion, someone pointed out that maybe it would be useful to look for something related to the “hardest hit delivery”, since the Scotland bowlers were at the mercy of the batsmen after every delivery.

A fan was first heard saying that India had torn apart Scotland’s bowling, but he re-phrased it as, India had “tortured their bowling”. When the match ended, the billboard near the boundary flashed the customary message: “Thank you, hope you enjoyed the match.” But a spectator commented: “Thank you, but there was no match as Scotland were no match for India.”

Hard hitters

When the giant scoreboard wished captain Virat Kohli a “Happy Birthday” on Friday, even the Scotland fans joined the Indians in cheering for him. But many India supporters wanted birthday boy Kohli to lose the toss again, hoping for some of the big hits and a huge score posted first as on the Afghanistan match-day. They were sure that Scotland on winning the toss would have bowled first.

The only Scotland batter to be included in the hard hitters’ list in ICC’s official souvenir for this World Cup is their opener George Munsey. He is ranked fifth among the batsmen to hit the fastest T20I century (in 41 balls) against the Netherlands in 2019. He had also once hit a 25-ball century for Gloucestershire second XI.

Though he looked dangerous hitting a six off Jasprit Bumrah and also played reverse-hit boundaries off Ravichandran Ashwin, he fell for 24 to Mohammed Shami.

When Chris Greaves came out to bat, an Indian fan was heard saying that he had heard about the Indian multinational company Crompton Greaves but not of Chris. One would hope he heard Greaves’ story of determination to keep going through the pandemic times — when he delivered Amazon parcels for an income during lockdown after the Covid-19 outbreak.

Time for banter

While runs flowed from the Indians’ bats, hilarious and sarcastic comments flowed from the fans. India needed to chase 86 runs in 8.5 overs to go past New Zealand’s run rate, so a fan waved a placard: “He is our dear Ro-Hit”. When every shot that Rohit Sharma hit went for a boundary, someone shouted, “Don’t bowl to his bat.”

Then again, as Scotland introduced a new bowler for every new over, another

said: “Please try out all 10, except the wicketkeeper.” When the ratio of the number of shots to the boundary increased, someone said Scotland should be renamed as the “Shotsland team”.