World Cup Social Pavilion: Bharat Army's new chant for Vijay Shankar, Sarfaraz Ahmed ditching his PM's advice and more

Long before the battle lines were drawn, our very own Bharat Army welcomed the India vs Pakistan match with aplomb. They celebrated 20 years of the formation of the fan club which has been one of the driving forces of the team in the recent past wherever it plays.

Pakistan’s Wazir-E-Azam and World-Cup winning captain must have been disappointed by their Champions trophy-winning captain when he won the toss and opted to field first. Pakistan Cricket team were clearly trying to rebel without a plan.

Just like a few of Pakistan fans who had no idea why they had to dress up like that.

So, even before the match began, their own captain took a jibe at their Prime Minister and a former legend and ICC were having a go at their fans. On an ideal day, things should’ve got better. But not in a world of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Reminder: It’s Rohit Sharma’s world and we’re just living in it. He pulls when he wants. He scores double centuries at will. He basically does everything he wants at his own discretion. So much so that every time he crosses the 100-run mark in an innings, talks of him scoring a double century begin. Not too bad, eh?

Virat Kohli also crossed the 11,000 run mark in just 222 innings. The probability of him breaking a new record is becoming increasingly obvious that we just have to shrug of these ‘little’ records. Or just yawn at them like his Pakistani counterpart did.

The play resumed after a brief stoppage due to rain and the Pakistan skipper was caught yawning. Not once but twice.

Needless to say, the trolling and memes followed. There was some resistance from their top order batsmen Fakhar Zaman and Babar Azam who looked set in the middle after Imam-ul-Haq was trapped by Vijay Shankar. Oh and by the way, Bharat Army is probably Doctor Strange in disguise. Even before the teams were decided, the Bharat Army belted out a chant from their playlist in honour of the breakthrough star from Tamil Nadu.

Shankar and Pandya caused enough damage after Bhuvi was out due to a tight hamstring. Hardik Pandya was here, hardik pandya was there. Hardik Pandya was frigging flying. And he deserved to. Any chance of a Pakistani comeback or even the slightest talk of it was dismissed by the Mumbai Indians all-rounder.

Four wickets in three overs have totally changed the game. Pakistan are five down and it'll take something special for them to get back into this encounter. #lovecricket #cricket #INDvPAK #lovecricket

A post shared by Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) on Jun 16, 2019 at 9:45am PDT

However, it was the post-match stuff that actually lived up to the hype. There was humour and banter.

If Sarfaraz’s yawn became the talk of the hour, India’s player of the match Rohit Sharma brought his A-game or Mumbai-game of humour to the press conference.

Shoaib Akhtar stood up on behalf of all the Pakistani fans. Only difference was that he took on the the players who actually performed well rather on taking on the skipper or Hasan Ali or senior players like Hafeez or Shoaib Malik. Here is a special clip of his monologue/rant/abuse/despair/grief.

Also, Rishabh Pant and MSD's daughter Ziva is all of us after the India's win against Pakistan.

Rishabh Pant resuming babysitting duties, this time with @ziva_singh_dhoni! #repost

A post shared by Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) on Jun 16, 2019 at 12:27pm PDT

While we wait for an official word from the Pakistan Prime Minister on the snub he got from the cricket team’s captain, here’s wishing you all a happy Monday at the office which, we hope, will mostly be spent reminiscing Rohit Sharma’s masterclass. Remember, it’s Rohit Sharma’s world. We’re just living in it.