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WATCH: Former Pakistani cricketer claims India would lose to knock out Pakistan from semi-finals of Cricket World Cup 2019

Gurpreet Singh
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WATCH: Former Pakistani cricketer claims India would lose to knock out Pakistan from semi-finals of Cricket World Cup 2019

Former Pakistani cricketer claims India would lose to knock out Pakistan Team from the ongoing 2019 Cricket World Cup

Former Pakistani cricketer Basit Ali has come up with yet another absurd cum controversial statement (for which he is very well known for), in relation to Pakistan Team’s chances of qualifying in the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup in England and Wales.

Ali, who has played 50 ODIs and 19 Tests for Pakistan is known for coming up with his out-of-the-box thesis, and he has unsurprisingly come up with one yet again.

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As per the 48-year-old, Team India will deliberately lose its last two league matches against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to make sure that Pakistan is prevented to seal a semi-final berth in the ongoing World Cup.

It is worth mentioning that, Pakistan have won back to back matches against South Africa and New Zealand to bring back life into their World Cup campaign. An England loss against Australia the other day at Lord’s, meant that Pakistan and England might well be involved in a cut-throat competition to seal the 4th spot before the knock-out stages commence. But, Basit Ali comes up with his own version of alleged conspiracy that Team India might hatch.

What did Basit Ali comment?

Drawing out the basis of his argument from the India vs Afghanistan, which India managed to win by a whisker (by 11 runs), Ali, while interacting with the anchor of a Pakistani news channel, was of the view that India had deliberately played the match in such fashion, and they would do the same against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, without even letting people know about it. He remarked that people do not have eyes, but ‘buttons’.

He further opined that David Warner deliberately played a slowish innings against India at The Kia Oval, to hand India the victory!

What was more remarkable was that he dismissed the fact that Cricket is a game of chances, and to prove his point gave the reference of the 1992 World Cup where, according to him, New Zealand has deliberately lost its final league match versus Pakistan, in order to play the semi-final match at their Home ground.

WATCH: Basit Ali claims India would lose to deny Pakistan a semi-final spot

Pakistan are currently at the 5th spot in the points table. They not only need to win both their remaining matches against Afghanistan and Bangladesh, but also hope that other results fall on their side too. The Pakistan fans might well and rarely be seen cheering for India during their match against England, as England will have to lose at least one match to make way for Pakistan in the final four.

About the author

Gurpreet Singh

Gurpreet Singh

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Gurpreet Singh is a Cricket writer at The Sportsrush. His platonic relationship with sports had always been there since childhood, but Cricket managed to strike a special, intimate nerve of his heart. Although his initial dream of playing the sport at the highest level couldn't come to fruition, Gurpreet did represent the state of Jharkhand at the under-14 level. However, almost like taking a pledge to never let the undying passion for Cricket fade away even a tad, he made sure to continue the love relationship by assigning the field of journalism as an indirect Cupid. He thus, first finished his bachelor's in journalism and then pursued the PG Diploma course in English journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC). Soon after and since 2019, he has been working at The Sportsrush. Apart from sports, he takes keen interest in politics, and in understanding women and gender-related issues.

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