That's why you don't give up on the underdogs until the very end.
The team that Japan was going against is currently wearing the crown of T20 rankings. Moreover, they have also won back-to-back championships in the T20 World Cup. It's natural that Japan and Japanese fans would be apprehensive about their opponent. The Indian cricket team had brought some of their best players to the Suzuki Cup, leaving no stone unturned for this face-off.
The Japanese were pretty honest about their chances. Japanese politician Taro Kono was one of those who were doubtful about Japan's play. "I thought the Indian team would kill us, but it was 'almost,'" he boldly proclaimed in an interview with ANI. But did his prediction end up coming true?
In fact, it was Japan that almost ‘killed’ India
Within 5 overs, India lost four wickets and scored merely 32 runs. To make matters worse, three of their batsmen walked away with single-digit scores, and the captain, Shreyas Iyer, couldn't even reach 20 runs before he was sent back to the pavilion.
To add salt to the wound, Abhishek Sharma walked away with a golden duck in the very first over. He is the same batsman who had been smashing Afghanistan’s bowlers left and right in the T20 series prior to his Asian Games appearances. Sharma went from a century in his last match to a duck in Japan.
The precise bowling attack from the Japanese bowlers on the slow-turning pitch put the Indians in a complete disarray. When it was Japan's turn to bat, they were slow and steady when scoring their runs. As a result, their chances of victory skyrocketed. As one point, they needed 6 runs from four balls. The game went until the last ball, and India won by merely 2 runs.
So it's no wonder that Kono couldn't help but feel proud of his team's performance against the behemoth known as India.
"So, well, thank you very much for your consideration. I hope, you know, they’re going to have a bigger cricket population in Japan. It (cricket) is going to be in the Olympic Games. So maybe our cricket team has some hope for the Olympic Games," he remarks.
It was a true display of cricket at its finest. Japan has proved one thing for sure: they are pretty serious about cricket, and they are not going to be intimidated easily. If they set foot on the ground, their sole focus is on the prize.
