India arrived at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Monday (November 8) knowing that their campaign was over after Afghanistan lost to New Zealand a day before. It was yet a day of pride and emotion for various reasons as they played Namibia in a dead rubber.
Virat Kohli played his last T20I as captain, while head coach Ravi Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar's tenure also came to an end with the Indian team.
Kohli, who had a difficult time winning tosses earlier, ended his T20I captaincy stint with a win at the toss as he chose to bowl first. India restricted Namibia to 132/8 with spinners Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin taking three wickets each while Jasprit Bumrah took two wickets.
India chased down the moderate target in 15.2 overs with openers Rohit Sharma (56) and KL Rahul (54*) scoring half-centuries, and Suryakumar Yadav making 25* after Kohli promoted him up the order to have a hit in the middle.
With their third successive win, unfortunately the tournament came to a close for a side that was fancied to win at the start. After two losses to Pakistan and New Zealand, India's fate was not in their hands and eventually they bowed out of the competition despite three huge wins over Afghanistan, Scotland and Namibia.
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There were some emotions towards the end as the four-year association of Kohli and Shastri as captain and coach ended. India couldn't win an ICC title during their leadership but became a far better team overall especially in Test cricket.
Kohli and Shastri embraced each other as there were some emotions on show with the change of guard coming up soon for India as Rahul Dravid will take over the coaching duties with his new staff and Rohit Sharma is set to be named as the new T20I captain. Kohli is expected to continue leading the side in Tests and ODIs.
Watch the post-match scenes here:
