The Indian cricket team's recent loss against Australia in the World Test Championship (WTC) final has sparked a flurry of reactions from fans on social media. Former Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh took a subtle dig at a tweet that implied MS Dhoni single-handedly won the T20 World Cup. Singh emphasized that cricket is a team sport and that victories should be attributed to the collective efforts of all players.

The tweet in question read, "No coach, no mentor, young boys, most of the senior players denied to take part. never captained any single match before. This guy defeated prime Australia in the semifinals and won a T20 World Cup in 48 days after becoming captain," accompanied by an image of Dhoni. In response, Harbhajan Singh pointed out the irony of solely appreciating and recognizing the captain's role in India's victories, unlike nations such as Australia, which credit the entire team for their success. Singh criticized the prevalent culture of idolizing individual players and stressed that cricket is ultimately a team sport.

Singh's tweet garnered mixed reactions, with some criticizing his viewpoint, while others supported his stance. It is worth mentioning that many ardent MS Dhoni fans have often credited the ICC trophy victories under Dhoni's captaincy solely to Dhoni himself, further fueling the discussion around individual recognition versus the collective effort of the team.

The debate sparked by Harbhajan Singh's tweet highlights the ongoing discussions in Indian cricket circles regarding the importance of acknowledging the contributions of the entire team in achieving success. While captains play a vital role, it is essential to recognize the collective effort put forth by every player on the field.

As social media continues to buzz with opinions and counter-arguments, it remains to be seen how this conversation evolves within the cricketing community and among fans.

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Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.

The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.

Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.

Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.

What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.

"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,

which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.

"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.

"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.

"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.

In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.

The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.

With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.

Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).