Cricket Champions
India reign supreme in the finals of the 10th edition of ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. The celebrations flowing as a growing garland with praises and tokens of appreciations fountainhead in air as it’s raining joy in each and everyone’s soul of this 1.21 billion nation and we can boast as no.1 side in both tests and ODI’s.
The world cup final commenced in the most unusual fashion with chaos in toss and finally the blame fell on crowd’s cheers. Zaheer Khan’s consistent length outside off and immense pressure forced Upul Tharanga to nick to first slip. Dilshan reached the landmark of 500 runs in the tournament but was unlucky as the ball got off the pads to plunge the stumps. Sangakkara and Jayawardena put-forth their gargantuan experience into play to steady the ship. But with Yuvraj’s perplexing spin, Sankakkarra and Samaraweera left soon in quick succession. Zaheer look all set to topple Afridi as leading wicket taker when his extra bouce bamboozled Kapugadera to give catching practice to Raina in short cover. But the Lankans thwarted Zaheer in the batting powerplay to set a competitive target of 275. Sehwag was struck hard on the pads in the 2nd ball by Malinga which looked dead plumb but still was being reviewed. With a sluggish outfield Tendulkar’s cover drives was denied a boundary. Malinga toppled the master by forcing him to edge leaving India at 31 for 2.The silence was a blood-cudling scream of anguish,set out to break my soul.Virat Kholi took his time but gave a sigh of hope before he was dismissed with an absolute stunner of a catch by Dilshan of his own bowling. Then came the defining moment when Dhoni slithered into park quietly sono one would notice when he dug his fangs in and slowly poisoned the bowling rampage. The runs came down in long knitting needles with Gambhir and the skipper using the left-right combination. Though Gambhir threw his century away he certainly deserved the man of the match award for his 97 ahead of Dhoni. 52 needed on the board with a powerplay in hand. Slowly but steadily Dhoni finished off things in style striking 91 of 79 balls thereby silencing his critics.
“He has carried the burden of the nation for 21 years on his shoulders, now it’s time we carry him on ours” these words edged out spontaneously from the promising youngster Virat Kholi and truly holds as the best of the lot. Sachin truly deserves the world cup and this feat adds another feather on Dhoni’s cap. Sachin has dedicated himself to the sport and has been as busy as a beaver while Dhoni on the other hand was as cool as a cucumber throughout the tournament. Gary Kirsten always preferred the backstage and with this world cup to his credit he was brought to limelight and was taken for a lap around the stadium in the most endeavoring fashion and waved a goodbye for one last time. The process of development started off months ago but the progress in Indian fielding just sparked off. It’s proud moment for each and every one of us which we will never forget in a lifetime. I am bleeding blue!
Tags: Champions, Cricket, ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, India, ODI Cricket, World Cup
