13 runs needed off 6 balls... for Pakistan to clinch the World Cup... Everybody watching with bated breath.... Dhoni handed the ball to Joginder Sharma, the small town lad who did not look menacing by any means in front of Pak's Misbah-ul-Haq who had clobbered Harbhajan Singh in the penultimate over.
The first ball is a wide !! There goes our hopes down the drain... Jogi hit for a straight six the next ball... All our Indian hearts came till the mouth... The feeling of despair & helplessness that with just a boundary it will all be over.
We really believed that this young team without the 3 big guns of the Indian cricket will bring us the World's 1st T20 World Cup.
Hearts pounding again with Joginder bowling his next delivery.... We feared that Misbah would repeat the Javed Miandad act to win it for the Pakis.
Misbah tries to be smart & tries to scoop it behind Dhoni, the Wicket keeper.... What happened...? The ball is in the air & voila....
Sheer luck.... Its Sreesanth under the ball trying to catch the ball... And there she lands in his hands..... It was Pakistan's last wicket... Woow... It took some time for us to sink in our mind that India had won a World Cup !!!
Hurray!!! That was an involuntary hooting from all of us watching the match... In seconds I heard fire cracker sounds in my vicinity... This called for a huge celebration. We had friends messaging congratulating each other as if all we are going to get a share of the prize money :)
But really to tell you the fact... Its always an occasion of celebration when you feel proud to be an INDIAN.
This was an amazing feeling.... It brought out the nostalgic memories in my mind.... My mind rolled back to a few months ago.... March-April 2007 where India had crashed out of the W. Indies World Cup & couldn't even reach the super 8 stages. Its a known phenomena that Cricket is a religion in our nation which is over emphasized at times. The players are literally crucified when they lose in key tournaments & are held high in godly stature when they win.
Flash back to the 2003 S. Africa World Cup where India had done so well to reach the Finals but lost out to Aussies as they were too smart to be outsmarted by the Indians. In 1999 India failed to reach the Semis in England. It was a horrendous semifinals in 1996 for the Indian when they were outsmarted by the Lankans. I remember that I had high hopes on the then Indian cricketers, after that thrilling Pakistan match in the Quarter finals where India won it. The semis were abandoned due to crowd disruption in Cacutta, Eden Gardens.... after India failed to make an impact in all the departments of the game. I even remember myself crying along with Vinod Kambli :P
I am sure every cricket buff in this country would have had similar feelings as I have described above. I am sure people would have cursed Ravi Shastri as many times as me when he wasted balls in one day games... We have cursed the bowlers whenever they conceded unreasonable runs in crucial matches... But today's game had made us forgive all that.
At last... Nevertheless... Its the Dream of a lifetime for an Indian cricket fan to come true.
Too good a dream to come true... As I smiled & gazed at my wife for bearing with me when I watched this final match....my wife mused.... Imagine what if Sreesanth had dropped that catch?? I said, 'Dont even think about it'...
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Sunday, September 16, 2007
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