[IND vs NZ] Twitter Erupts With Funny Memes As Mohammed Shami Takes 5-Fer

Senior India pacer Mohammed Shami became the first-ever Indian bowler to take two five-wicket hauls in ODI World Cup history. Shami, who had taken a five-fer against England in the 2019 World Cup, took a five-wicket haul against New Zealand on Sunday in Dharamsala in their World Cup 2023 encounter.

Four years ago in the 2019 WC too, Shami had started the tournament on the bench and then later on came in the XI to make an impact straight away. He had started the World Cup 2023 tournament on the bench for the first four games as India preferred Shardul Thakur for adding batting depth.

However, due to Hardik Pandya’s injury, India had to make two changes in their combination – Suryakumar Yadav and Mohammed Shami replaced Hardik and dropped Shardul Thakur – Shami got his opportunity today and was on the mark immediately.

Shami took one wicket in the powerplay, one wicket in the middle overs, and then snapped three wickets in the death overs. His five-for included the wickets of the well-set centurion Daryl Mitchell and half-centurion Rachin Ravindra, both the best batters for New Zealand today.

Such was the performance from Mohammed Shami that it seems now that even when Hardik returns, Shami is likely to be retained over Thakur.

Shami’s numbers in ODI World Cup are terrific and he’s gone underrated. For bowlers who have taken a minimum of 15 wickets in the ODI World Cup, Shami’s strike rate of 17.6 is the best among all, and his average of 15.02 is the third-best of all with this filter. Shami has taken 36 wickets in only 12 innings in World Cup.

Mohammed Shami’s performance against New Zealand brought out a memefest on Twitter.

Best memes on five-wicket haul by Mohammed Shami vs New Zealand:

New Zealand posted a total of 273 runs on the back of a century from Mitchell and a half-century from Rachin Ravindra.

Teams:

India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj

New Zealand (Playing XI): Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham(w/c), Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Mitchell Santner, Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult