Fear seizes most of the Indian fans, when their powerhouse openers are back in the hut with very little on the board. What hurts bowling teams that bowl first are not the attritional batsmen of the likes of Gambhir or Clarke, but more of bulldozers like Hayden and Sehwag, and even more devastating are silken assassins of the kind of Jayawardene and Anwar. At the end of the first half, the momentum was very much with the Lankans with Zaheer reliving the blues from the 2003 final. You could sense the jubilation in the Lankan camp vis-a-vis the despondence that was written on the Indian fans faces. While this Indian team ( I haven’t gone through the stats as yet) might be relatively good at chasing down totals, chasing more than just competitive total in a world cup final is a different ball-game altogether. Add to this cauldron, the desperation of the billion fans and one cold reality that this really is the last chance for Tendulkar, the gnawing fact that we are so agonizingly close to world cup glory. Phew….it takes nerves of steel and an eternal struggle to stay afloat and give it one good almighty heave. Dhoni did just that with the winning six!!
Its hard to maintain one’s equanimity during the cricket matches and I did feel the adrenaline pumping during the 2003 game against Pak and the knockout games in this WC. Probably I will never get over these feelings and to be honest, I don’t want to get over it either. It took a while for me to settle down and adjust to the reality of India featuring in a WC final after 2003.
MS's candor has come in for lot of praise, even as his detractors hail him as one plain lucky dude. While its hard to pass judgment on the latter, one must say that his two major decisions today were backed by reasonable logic:
1. Playing enfant terrible Sreesanth over a more complete cricketer such as Ashwin:
It is common knowledge that the Lankans are comfortable against spin and there could be potential problems from the dew factor if we were to defend a score.
2. Bringing himself ahead of Yuvi: This was obviously to negate Murali's past success against Yuvi and his own ability to read Murali's doosra much better. Secondly, allowing two southpaws against offies would have enabled the Lankan spinners to settle into a nice rhythm.
From the Lankan front, there were as many as 4 changes that raised a few eyebrows. Sanga probably thought he would spring a surprise on the Indians by bringing in Randiv in place of Mendis (whose recent record against Indians hasn’t been noteworthy). Nuwan and Perera's inclusion were prompted by their collective all round ability to plug the gap left by Angelo Mathews. Kapugedera in place of Chamara Silva surely seemed to be a gamble, with not much separating the two except the former's electric fielding.
The final denouement was a fitting climax for many, especially for Sachin and not so great for another legend: Murali. The form and mental fortitude shown by the younger brigade augurs well for the ODI side at least for few years to come. What distinguishes champion sides such as WI of the 70-80s and Aussies in the 90s-00s, is their consistency across all competitions and the sense of fear they instilled in the opposition until the final ball was bowled. While India still has a long way to go before scaling such heights, we have reached some significant summits in recent years and pray that we build on these successes without starting all over again under a new coach.
Personally the last one week has been a mixed bag for me: the graduation, a job, and on the flip side - the reality that my college days are over and there won’t be any more back slapping and goofing around with my college buddies. This victory is thus sweet tonic for me and I would definitely savor it for sometime to come.
Chak de India !!
