The 2017 ICC Champions Trophy has come to its fag end as arch-rivals India and Pakistan are all set to take on each other in the final at The Oval in London on June 18. A lot of things have happened in the past three weeks that the fans will cherish for a long time.
Bangladesh reaching the semi-finals, Australia failing to play a full match due to rain, Shikhar Dhawan’s master-class with the bat et al. However, one thing that silently gained a lot of attention is the “curse of Zainab Abbas”.
Who is Zainab Abbas?
Zainab Abbas is a Pakistani journalist, who works as a sports anchor/analyst for Dunya news. She is currently in England covering the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy.
Why is she in the news of late?
After losing to India by 124 runs in their first match of the tournament, Pakistan was looking for someone who could turn things around for them. Fortunately, they found the X-factor who could reverse the fortunes for them. Unfortunately, it was someone who was not in the 15-member squad.
It was none other than Zainab as she was jinxing the opposition a day before the match and making sure that Pakistan get favourable results. It all started with a selfie with South African skipper AB de Villiers a day before Pakistan’s must-win game against the Proteas.
What happened next? De Villiers got out for a golden duck and Pakistan went on to win the match by 19 runs via DLS method and kept their hopes alive.
Then, it was the turn of Indian skipper Virat Kohli. A day after taking a selfie with her, the right-hander got out for a duck against Sri Lanka and India went on to lose the match.
In two consecutive days, two of world’s best batsmen failed with the bat and their team lost after taking a selfie with Zainab. This received a lot of attention from the Twitterati and out of nowhere, Zainab became a sensation.
Ahead of Pakistan’s virtual quarter-final against Sri Lanka, a lot of Pakistan fans requested her to take a selfie with Angelo Mathews and she obliged. She took a selfie with the Lankan skipper and the next day, his team got knocked out of the competition while the Men in Green progressed to the semis.
Taking on the tournament favourites and the hosts England, Pakistan fans got a sigh of relief when they saw a picture of Joe Root with Zainab. Following the trend, England lost the match and Pakistan reached the final.
Here are some of the funny tweets in which she was mentioned and it looks like she took those tweets with a pinch of salt.
These are mere superstitions made up by the fans of the sport. A line should be drawn regarding such incidents and the fanatics should make sure that she isn’t hurt by their comments/tweets.
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