Today I can write the most felicitous lines. We are the ODI world champions. On Saturday at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium, we regained the World Cup after a gap of 28 years. The collective team effort, the most special one.
It was jubilation when MS Dhoni had just sent the Wankhede Stadium into delirium by upper-cutting Perera for a six over the point. The thud was so loud it could be heard from near the sightscreen, despite all the noise from the stands, where the crowd was going crazy. It is extraordinary that Dhoni makes such shows of emotion. Strangely, the other time he did so was during an IPL game in Dharamsala when he upper-cut his own helmeted face like a boxer after he had just hit the winning six. As far as MS Dhoni is concern I can say "cometh the hour, cometh the man". He made quite few decisions which created quite a few questions. We can debate for ages whether he should have played Sreesanth or not. And I know that everybody would have objurgated him for promoting himself above the in-form Yuvraj Singh. He after the Victory said "I took a quite few decisions tonight, if we hadn't won I would have been asked quite a few questions: Why no Ashwin, why Sreesanth, why no Yuvraj, why did I bat ahead?! That pushed me and motivated to do well".
What was special about our team? Self-belief, for one. During the entire tournament, Team India kept the faith. Many of us despaired after we lost the toss under controversial circumstances. Many of us felt that 275 was a hard, if not impossible, target. Not the Men in Blue. They achieved the goal with calm and poise. Every run was hard fought but they
never seemed to panic.
There was delight, there were tears of joy, there was contentment. There was relief after a campaign in which their every move was noticed, dissected and criticized or praised. It was a moment nobody could take away from the Indian team. They took their time as they celebrated. Slowly, savouring each moment. Months of tension, build-up, sleepless nights, inability to eat regularly, cramps, vomit, sweat, toil; all of it was over, and in their hands was the World Cup.
Its a Dream come true to our own Cricket God "Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar."
He played for for so long & waited for six World Cup for this moment of exhilaration.
After that he quoted "I couldn't have asked for anything more than this. Winning the World Cup is the proudest moment of my life. Thanks to my team-mates. Without them, nothing would have happened. I couldn't control my tears of joy."
His long-cherished dream of winning the World Cup came true. This is what he had to say minutes after the special victory. India's favorite son, Sachin Tendulkar, got that by fulfilling a childhood dream of playing in a World Cup-winning team. Tendulkar, not used to having his feet off the ground, for a change felt comfortable on the shoulders of his team-mates as they took a lap of the Wankhede. He was being taken around a ground that had once booed him. All that didn't matter today. A life-long dream had been achieved in a sixth attempt; in front of his home crowd, at a ground where he played most of his domestic cricket.
After the heartbreak of 1996 and 2003, when India were beaten in the semis and finals respectively, Tendulkar finally got what he so desperately desired.
One among the Magnificent Seven who form the mighty Indian batting line-up had to stand out there on Saturday night. He would have to toil hard, soak in the pressure, breathe the moment and deliver something special. There emerged one and it was Gautam Gambhir.
Gautam Gambhir was matched for intensity by the finest captain's innings since Ricky Ponting in Johannesburg eight years ago.
At 31 for 2 in the seventh over, India were struggling to keep their toehold in the contest, and it was all too much for a faithless few in the crowd who turned their backs and set off for home. But Gambhir and Virat Kohli epitomise a generation that does not easily accept defeat, and their third-wicket stand of 83 laid the foundations for an epic turnaround. The prospect of a seam-friendly surface, allied to the grievous loss of Angelo Mathews to a thigh strain, had tempted Sri Lanka into four key changes to the team that had triumphed over New Zealand in Colombo, and with Muttiah Muralitharan lacking bite in the final wicketless appearance of his 19-year career, Malinga alone could not carry the day.
Dhoni and Gambhir scored at a brisk pace to keep India in the hunt. The pair stitched 109 runs for the fourth wicket before Gambhir paid the price for a horrendous stroke, just three runs short of what would have been a well-deserved century. Dhoni at one stage looked so immobile that a precautionary retirement seemed the only logical response, but after some harsh work from the physio he resumed his stance and responded with another trademark filleting of the extra cover boundary, an area in which he scored six of his eight fours - three of which helped to blunt Murali's attacking instincts.
Gambhir struck nine fours in a 122-ball statement of indomitability, and both he and Dhoni required treatment for stiff backs as the sapping Mumbai heat took its toll.
Ghambir cherished the cup winning moment Quoting this:
"All credit goes to Sachin Tendulkar. We played for him. Beating Australia and Pakistan and now this, its a dream come true."
Before the World Cup, Yuvraj Singh was struggling for form. Yuvraj had been dogged by injury and poor form, his image as a cricketer tattered and taunted at. Through this World Cup, Yuvraj has remained the fulcrum of India's batting; the centre who has held it together through top-order wobbles and Powerplay collapses. Yuvraj's presence in three of India's most memorable one-day stands has already set him aside to be thought of. More than 350 runs in addition to 15 Wickets it nothing better than this for him. Keeping his nerve calm & Playing for a special person as he mentioned earlier he fastened his seat belts to drive India to Conquer the World. After the Victory he said
"This is unbelievable. The Under-19 World Cup, then the World Twenty20 but this is the most special. For Sachin, for everyone else."
Virat Kohli, playing in his first World Cup and inconsolable when he had got out earlier, sang Chak de India to the crowd. Virat Kohli's maturity, his hunger for success, and his ability to mould his game according to the needs of the team are the traits that separate him from some of the other young batsmen who have pretensions of occupying a slot in India's ODI middle order.
Suresh Raina too brings a rare mix of a flamboyant game and the willingness to work hard on it, and his fitness and fielding besides. As a batsman his strength lies in being able to hit into unusual areas, be it over extra cover or midwicket, making it difficult for captains to set fields for him. He might look odd facing the short ball, but owns one of the most beautiful cover-drives in the game. His willingness to put the team priorities on top makes his batting position flexible. He is often used as an impact batsman, and has served some time trying to make the finisher's role his own. In this world cup he came as Bit Part Player who came to India's Aid.
But before all this, It was the ebb and flow of Zaheer Khan's day that epitomised the fluctuations of a compelling contest.
Zaheer and World Cup finals have an interesting relationship. In the ill-fated 2003 edition, he went for 15 runs in a wayward nervous first over after India had put Australia in. In 2011 edition, he seemed set for perfect redemption when he started with three consecutive maidens and took Upul Tharanga's wicket, too, in his first spell, peerless spell of 5-3-6-1. Cricket, though, can be cruel, and in his last spell, Zaheer realised just that clobbered for 17 and 18 runs in his ninth and tenth overs, as Sri Lanka monstered 63 runs in the batting Powerplay to post an imposing 274 for 6.
Gary Kirsten's contribution was not forgotten. On the strong and reliable shoulders of Yusuf Pathan, the team chaired Kirsten too, who was coaching India for one last time. An equally loud applause followed. Quietly,Paddy Upton, the mental conditioning coach, and Eric Simons, the bowling coach, watched. They watched men become kids, they watched and heard, 33,000 people's gratitude.
Emotions splattered all around the Wankhede
they can barely be controlled
whether it is crying Happy tears
or the emotional arousal. Its all there & Its Wonderful.
This very moment will always be remembered by Mumbaikars & will be in record books of Wankhede.
Run by run, over by over, minute by minute, India picked themselves up, dusted themselves down, and turned the screw on Sri Lanka with a determination that a lesser group of men could not have begun to muster, amid the sure knowledge that several billion countrymen were investing all their hopes in their actions. And though he himself played just a walk-on part in the wider drama, it was Tendulkar who was chaired from the field as the celebrations began in earnest. "He's carried the burden of our nation for 21 years," said the youngster Kohli. "It was time to carry him on our shoulders today."
