A billion hearts of cricket crazy Indians are crushed tonight. The Men in Blue suffered a shocking exit from the ICC T20 World Cup as they lost to West Indies in a thrilling semifinal encounter at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai.
Batting first, the hosts put up a mammoth target of 193 to the Caribbeans, thanks to the heroics of Virat Kohli, who hit an explosive 89 off 47 balls. Virat was well supported by openers Rohit Sharma (43) and Ajinkya Rahane (40).
Chasing an almost invincible target, West Indies suffered a major setback quite early in its innings, when they lost its star cricketer Chris Gayle for just 5 runs. However, Johnson Charles (52) and Lendl Simmons (82) kept Windies' hopes alive and together with Andre Russell's fireworks (43), they steered Windies towards an unbelievable victory.
Apart from Ashish Nehra and a surprisingly decent spell by Virat Kohli, all Indian bowlers failed to rise to the occasion. In the end, those two unfortunate no balls in Aswin and Pandya's overs which gave 2 lives to the Man of the Match Lendl Simmons have cost India its semifinals tonight. The West Indies will play England in the finals at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on April 3.