T20 Champions – Longed to see India at the top

Wishes fulfilled – mission accomplished – dreams realised – some of the feelings most of the Indians(not muslims, hindus. sikhs, christians etc…no place for religion we are one) with such tense and nervous moments flirting with the minds of us ; once again our hearts pounded at the instant of seeing the moments turn up and what more could you ask – the drama we had seen for the last few days really last few days only, only thing that amused me was when Uthappa ensured that we are 3-0 ahead of PAK and Afridi missed the wicket(lac of practice!!) and a fortnight later it was the final of the T20 final – the old rivals once again on the field

Yusuff pathan a relatively new guy started the proceedings with a fantastic straight shot against Asif, it started well but India somehow managed to open the door for the Pakistanis, hope it was not the tinge from their predecessors, Dhoni ensured that his boys didn’t give up before entering the field - Take that World we are coming he said and what was refreshing to see was the attitude and the self belief that they carried throughout the 2 weeks – in one voice he said that along with his team and ideally they would fall in the group of the Darest of the devils – Dhoni’s devils.

After the 1st innings ended – we felt that India missed Sehwag, but this new look Indian team lacked reputations, and for one more time we were proved as in the last 6 odd matches that the match winners were a bit of 1/11th from everbody(except for the Karthik’s blinder to send the SA skipper back to the hut- Karthik was substituting)….really it was the greatest moment in Indian cricket – the one which i have seen and would like to cherish……thought India would pull of a blinder on March 23, 2003 but Gilly and Hayden made it a day to forget – really we Indians are the people with the shortest of the memories in 2007 the same feat repeated with a much more agony piled upon us as India was rusty/lack lustre/complacent/waiting for things to happen all kinds of rubbish, back to the present good times- the first over started and as usual RP Singh was spot on…he was a fantastic bowler in the tournament – but went unnoticed, Joginder sharma all of a sudden looked the bowler who was containing with his too much wide deliveries, there was Sreeshanth who was feeling the pressure of the IND-PAK final, there was Harbhajan who for once forgot his experience for a while – then there was Irfan pathan who was waiting for the stage and the situation to show how class a bowler he is.

The fielding for once proved to be only second to the best -thats the best i can describe it, it was absolutely brilliant to watch the Dinesh’s catch to send Smith and his team back to the hut, it was exhilirating to hear the rattle of the timber when Yuvraj or Rohit Sharma or Robin Uthappa broke the stumps with their throwing arm. The sound of the timber everytime RP or Sreesanth or Irfan strike the stumps with their bowling arm, and above all the intelligence mixed with aggression after long long time from an Indian captain MSD – Mahendra Singh Dhoni- part of it can be attributed to the underdog term assosciated with this tournament minnows – INDIA as well as Pakistan(Have you heard Harsha Bhogle’s comments’Scotland should be complaining that they were placed in a group of two minnows).

The good thing about sports is that it lifts the morale of the nation and it particularly has all the necessary ingredients of a wonderful thriller when its happening between the arch rivals India and Pakistan the friendly foes – no one likes to be in the losing side…..as Ravi Shastri says while i write this post – ‘….For a team which has never played TT cricket it’s wonderful to win over Australia, South Africa and England who are way way ahead atleast at this time of point’

So it was great to see the huddle back and rejoicing to see the frequency it happens,Hope this continues to be in the same fashion, than a rather sporadic one which we have been used to……

Chal catch you in this category once again India Wins …. against the tide and against warriors.