Better luck next time, heroes: Mahira, Fahad, Mawra cheer men in green

After a long streak of stress-inducing but thrilling wins, the Pakistan cricket team disappointed fans with dropped catches, poor strategy and lousy batting on the field against Sri Lanka, costing us the Asia Cup 2022. The island nation, which was supposed to host the tournament but couldn’t due to political and economic unrest in their country, took the trophy home for the sixth time.

Overpowering the men in green by 23 runs at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday, the victory for Sri Lanka comes as a curtain-raiser for the T20 World Cup, which will be held in Australia next month. While pointing out the flaws of Pakistani players, celebrities took to Twitter to congratulate the “better team” and extend their love to our “heroes” for the “amazing memories” throughout the tournament.

The mantra about loving the team despite winning or losing dominated the bird app with everyone cheering up the players while acknowledging that Sri Lankans did deserve the win for their tremendous comeback after an embarrassing opening game against Afghanistan in Asia Cup.

RJ Anoushey Ashraf tweeted, “Sri Lanka needed this win more than us at the moment. Hope this brings happiness and smiles to every Sri Lankan’s face today. It’s been a hard year, we feel you. And for our boys, just not our day today, but you’re our heroes forever!”

Actor Armeena Khan wished the team luck for the next matches. “Condolences guys, better luck next time,” read her tweet.

Wearing green for her team, Mawra Hocane didn’t leave her patriotic spirit till the end. “You win some, you lose some. Good luck team Pakistan for the upcoming matches!”

However, the Habibi hitmaker Asim Azhar, who is a huge cricket fanatic, shared his disappointment with the team and congratulated Sri Lanka. “Well played Sri Lanka! They truly deserve to be champions. I’m disappointed but it’s okay. Pakistan Cricket Board, come back stronger! And thanks for the amazing memories throughout this,” he wrote.

Actor and host Fahad Mustafa believed that the men in green lacked teamwork in yesterday’s match. “Srilanka played as a team and we as individuals! Srilanka deserved to win.”

Former cricketer-turned-actor Wasim Akram’s words also echoed the same. “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing. That was the mantra of this amazing Sri Lankan team so congratulations. The better team won the Cup in the end,” read his tweet.

Mahira Khan also praised the Sri Lankan team and said they “outplayed” our heroes. Amongst all the disappointment and rage, the Dum Mastam producer Adnan Siddiqui wrote, “Don’t break TVs, the rest is fine. We’ve some very important lessons to be learnt from this match. Nevertheless, we are proud of you. You are our heroes. Congratulations and well played Sri Lanka.”

Retweeting a sports critic’s comment on how Azam and Zaman need to give answers for their yesterday’s loss, filmmaker Nabeel Qureshi wrote, “Absolutely, when required run rate is 15, no matter how many wickets are in hands, you can’t do much.”

The Actor In Law maker also blamed Muhammad Rizwan for playing slow. “In a power play, we just hit 2 boundaries from the bat!” Mansha Pasha also criticised hoarding wickets when there was a target to chase. “Why did we keep so many wickets in hand? You didn’t have to bring it home,” she wrote. She also congratulated Sri Lanka on their win.

Shaan Shahid was the angriest of the lot. From schooling the team about the difference between a T20 and a 50-over match to asking the fielding coach to step up and claim responsibility for the “embarrassment,” he exclaimed, “Professional players know their field. No one runs and bumps another player in their fielding zone.”

He concluded with the hashtag “tape ball match."