In a bizarre turn of events, the toss for the fifth T20I between England and India in Southampton on Saturday, July 11, was delayed. The Indian team were stuck in traffic and were late to reach the stadium, which caused the delay.
The Men in Blue arrived at the venue at 6:36 PM IST, while the toss was scheduled for 6:30 PM IST. Due to the delay, the toss for the fifth T20I was rescheduled for 7:15 PM IST, with the match set to start at 7:30 PM IST, half an hour after the scheduled start of play.
As the toss was delayed due to a rare reason, which has not often been seen in international cricket, fans came up with cheeky reactions on social media.
“And we thought Bangalore traffic is the worst, atleast Toss is never delayed due to it,” a fan wrote on X.
“Toss is delayed bcoz visiting team in struck in traffic. Imagine this happening with England in India. The Whole English media would have declared ut as End of World, India as end of civilization & there brand ambassador of crybabies “Michael CryVaughn”. Don’t even get me started,” a tweet read.
“Toss delayed as Indian team struck up in traffic jam 🤦 If Jay Shah was there he might have airlifted the entire team 💪,” another fan tweeted.
Below are some other reactions from fans on X –
India are 0-3 down in the five-match T20I series. The opening game was abandoned due to rain, while the visitors lost the other three matches.
India won the toss and opted to bowl first in the fifth T20I
Eventually, the toss took place, which was won by India captain Shreyas Iyer. The Men in Blue opted to bowl first in Southampton, looking to cap the series off with a win.
They made two changes to the playing XI, with a big change being Sanju Samson coming back, replacing Vaibhav Suryavanshi. All-rounder Washington Sundar made way for Suryansh Shedge.
India Playing XI for fifth T20I – Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer (C), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Suryansh Shedge, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Prince Yadav, Prasidh Krishna.
Edited by Rishab Vm