Triumphant India Cruises into Finals...

So the celebration continues and its ecstasy all around! I just do not have enough words to explain the feeling right now as I am completely overwhelmed and so are all the Indian fans. Of course after having had a busy day at office & shouting at the loudest possible voice in the office cafeteria/pantry, I am feeling too tired and would have been off to sleep any other day; however, the euphoria is such that it has given me an extra dose of energy to write a little more. After all; what the world has witnessed just now happened to be the biggest cricketing extravaganza that turned out to be simply phenomenal. India beat Pakistan by 29 runs. The excitement generated from this match would definitely continue for a long time to come.

CONGRATULATIONS to the Indian team & their supporters!

Indeed, the semi-finals (2011) between India & Pakistan was the biggest match I have ever observed in my life till date. There had been a huge build up to this match that was quite expected and to top it all it does seem to have a top class closing with Indian fans celebrating it with firecrackers, rallying on the roads, by dancing & singing their hearts out and congratulating each other. Fans have actually come out on the roads after the match with proper “Band-Baaza” and they can’t seem to be having enough of it even when I am writing this post. Apparently, it’ll take them a great deal of frenzied celebration before the feeling sinks in. The traffic was quite disrupted at around midnight when I was heading towards home from office and nobody seemed to mind that. No prizes for guessing why!

Indian team can now heave a little sigh of relief before launching themselves into the finals at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium. I am sure that the players from both the team (India & Pakistan) played with a little extra burden on their shoulders that were quite visible in their performances. Still, hat’s off to them as they managed to pull off a cracker of a match in which the cricket fans across the world were entertained to the hilt while the game itself along with Indian team emerged victorious. It was an emphatic win and a well deserved one at that. A team simply cannot afford to drop Sachin Tendulkar 4 times (dropped on 27, 45, 70 and 81) in a match. Although, he could not complete his century yet again, much to Afridi’s delight for the moment, he had already built up a solid foundation by scoring a gutsy 85 runs. Tendulkar rode on his luck today and looked vulnerable after dishing out some solid knocks in the earlier matches and yet his innings took India home and won him the first “Man of the Match” award in this edition of World Cup. I am reminded of one of the commentator who was saying---Who says good wishes don’t work? I agree—they do. Sachin & Team India shall now head towards Mumbai where they are to play Srilanka in the finals and which obviously would be a very critical game for all concerned.

To begin with Virender Sehwag (38 of 25 balls) set the stage for an India win very nicely by giving a whirlwind start by mercilessly thrashing Pak’s strike bowler Umar Gul. Full credit to his brilliance in un-settling of Umar Gul from where he could never bounce back. Towards the end of the Indian innings, Suresh Raina (36 of 39 balls) yet again proved his mettle by playing very sensibly and seeing India through to a decent Total of 260. The total looked decent more because of the behavior of the pitch as it became slow as the game progressed and it was getting tougher even to rotate the strike. Hence, Raina’s was a very crucial knock for sure and he was ably assisted by Harbhajan & Zaheer towards the end. Some other highlights of the match can be pointed out as follows:

  • It turned out to be the game which every cricketer would one day wish to be a part of. With all the hype and the presence prime ministers of both the countries, the occasion couldn’t have been bigger. The “Cricket Diplomacy” suddenly became the buzzword.
  • India bowling unit finally got into groove and looked at its best. There were a lot of discussions around Ashwin being left out and Nehra brought in. They were all put to rest in the end by Ashish Nehra producing the best bowling figures of 10-0-33-2 (10 overs, 0 maiden, 33 runs given & 2 wickets taken) for India. All other bowlers (Zaheer, Munaf, Yuvraj & Harbhajan) did very well too grabbing 2 wickets each. Hence, everyone who bowled took 2 wickets.
  • India maintains their unbeaten streak against Pakistan in World Cup matches by recording their 5th straight win since 1992. Sachin Tendulkar has been a part of all the matches and contributed a great deal in most of them.
  • Sachin Tendulkar moves up to second position in individual scorer’s category by aggregating 464 runs so far. Tilakratne Dilshan is at number one with 467 runs. Hence, it is going to be really interesting to see as to who finishes on top.
  • For India, they day was as good as any major festival and they almost celebrated “Diwali” tonight. They were bursting fire-crackers everywhere.
  • Most importantly, Indians players gelled together as a team like never before and that I think that this has been the major difference. They raised their fielding standards much to the advantage of the team. This glowing team spirit may very well take them home on 2nd April 2011 (Saturday).

As far as Pakistan team is concerned, Wahab Riyaz was a revelation definitely. He scored his best bowling figure of 10-0-5-46 taking very crucial wicket of rampaging Sehwag, and then dismissing Kohli, Yuvraj Singh and Indian Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni who’s still struggling to get his batting form back. Their opening pair of Kamran Akmal (19 of 21 balls) & Mohammad Hafeez (43 of 59 balls) did manage to give some uneasy moments to Indians; however, after the pair was broken they could never really dominate. Misbah-ul-Haq (56 of 76 balls, top scorer from Pak) did try some heroics in the end but then the game had already been taken away from them.

The big & final clash of this world cup is on the cards now and Indian players should remain focused. The best thing is that the fans are supporting them like never before now. And as I always say-- It always helps in building up the positive “collective consciousness”.

Srilanka are not going to be an easy opponent as they have done considerably well in this tournament. Will India rise to the occasion one more time to create yet another history after 28 years? Will Sachin get that elusive 100th international ton at his home ground? These are going to be the talk of the world till it concludes on Saturday.

And Guess what; just a while ago I received an SMS that said that the 1983 calendar & 2011 calendar are the same. I have not bothered to verify it though. 1983 was when India won the World Cup and personally I have every reason to believe that 2011 will be no different. They are just a step away from the “Glory”.

More power to Team India. All the very best!!!

Jai Ho! J

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