Mohammed Shami rocked and rolled at the Wankhede stadium on Wednesday evening by becoming the first Indian men’s bowler to take a 7-wicket haul. His magnificent achievement came in the World Cup 2023 semi-final against India’s nemesis of recent years, New Zealand, leading the side to a 70-run win in Mumbai.
Of the many tweets on Mohammed Shami on Wednesday, one tweet from an Indian fan went viral and has gained over 40,000 likes so far. In this tweet, a Twitter user with the handle @DonMateo_X14. had tweeted a day before the semi-final that Shami will take a 7-wicket haul in the semi-final against New Zealand.
It is just incredible how this premonition from this fan came to be true. Because no Indian men’s bowler had ever taken a 7-wicket haul in ODI history. And for Shami to do it in the semi-final took incredible skills. More incredible now it seems was this tweet from the fan who said he had dreamt that Shami would take a 7-fer against the Kiwis.
“Saw a dream where Shami took 7 wickets in the semi final” the fan had tweeted on Tuesday, a day before the semi-final.
As Shami took his 5-wicket haul, and then went on to bag two more wickets, this tweet spread like wildfire on social media. Indian fans asked him to dream and predict about the final now.
Mohammed Shami, and the entire India, though, had a scare when Shami dropped the catch of Williamson when the Kiwi skipper was batting well. Four overs later, however, Shami removed Williamson. His 7 wickets included all of the New Zealand top 5 batters, including centurion Daryl Mitchell.
On dropping Kane Williamson’s catch, Mohammed Shami said: “I dropped Williamson’s catch, I shouldn’t have. I felt terrible.”
Shami now is the leading wicket-taker in the World Cup 2023 with 23 scalps in only 6 games.
Speaking about his performances, Shami said: “I was waiting for my chances. I didn’t play a lot of white-ball cricket. My return started against New Zealand [in Dharamsala]. We talk a lot of variations, but I still believe in pitching it up and getting wickets with the new ball. The focus was to try and take pace off, see if they’re hitting it in the air.”
The second semi-final is on Thursday between Australia and South Africa.
