Party like it's 1983 II
Apr. 3rd, 2011 02:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swatkatI'm still talking about cricket, but I believe that's warranted - we won the World Cup, after all. Never thought I'd get to say that this year.
It's kind of difficult to believe that we did win - it was a tough match, and none of us were sure until the penultimate over if we were going to win. Dhoni played Sreesanth, who, along with the impeccable Mahela Jayawardena, ensured Sri Lanka would make it to a fighting total, despite Zaheer Khan's McGrath-esque spell there in the beginning. And so they did, and then Malinga nearly wrecked us with his double (we were 0-1 in that first over!).
There was no fairytale. Tendulkar did not score his 100th international century. He did not go up against Muralitharan and there was no final battle of the greats - if anything, Murali looked horribly rusty, a shadow of his past self, and didn't even finish his ten overs; Tendulkar looked in good touch, but then he played a bad shot to edge the ball off Malinga, leaving us at a precarious 31-2. And then something remarkable happened - the younger lot suddenly stood up to the challenge. Virat Kohli batted like a champ. Gambhir probably just earned himself the nickname The Wall II. The stadium authorities shamelessly cheated by playing Vande Mataram during the drinks break, cheering our batsmen on. And the captain - not having done anything particularly remarkable with the bat all series - promoted himself up the order and batted like a god, finishing the match off with a six - and okay, so perhaps there was a fairytale, because how many teams can say we chased a steep total, came back after an initial setback and WON THE WORLD CUP WITH A SIX?
Afterwards the team ran victory laps around the stadium with Sachin Tendulkar on their shoulders; when asked, Virat Kohli said, "Well, he has carried India on his shoulders for 21 years, so it was the least we could do." (Kohli is 22. He was one when Tendulkar started playing cricket.) I admit, I got a little teary at that part.
PS: I hope everyone noticed that Rajnikanth was there in the stands, cheering the team on. If he were playing, he would've got the entire SL team out. With one ball. (What? We won the World Cup, I believe a few bad Rajnikanth jokes are now due.)
It's kind of difficult to believe that we did win - it was a tough match, and none of us were sure until the penultimate over if we were going to win. Dhoni played Sreesanth, who, along with the impeccable Mahela Jayawardena, ensured Sri Lanka would make it to a fighting total, despite Zaheer Khan's McGrath-esque spell there in the beginning. And so they did, and then Malinga nearly wrecked us with his double (we were 0-1 in that first over!).
There was no fairytale. Tendulkar did not score his 100th international century. He did not go up against Muralitharan and there was no final battle of the greats - if anything, Murali looked horribly rusty, a shadow of his past self, and didn't even finish his ten overs; Tendulkar looked in good touch, but then he played a bad shot to edge the ball off Malinga, leaving us at a precarious 31-2. And then something remarkable happened - the younger lot suddenly stood up to the challenge. Virat Kohli batted like a champ. Gambhir probably just earned himself the nickname The Wall II. The stadium authorities shamelessly cheated by playing Vande Mataram during the drinks break, cheering our batsmen on. And the captain - not having done anything particularly remarkable with the bat all series - promoted himself up the order and batted like a god, finishing the match off with a six - and okay, so perhaps there was a fairytale, because how many teams can say we chased a steep total, came back after an initial setback and WON THE WORLD CUP WITH A SIX?
Afterwards the team ran victory laps around the stadium with Sachin Tendulkar on their shoulders; when asked, Virat Kohli said, "Well, he has carried India on his shoulders for 21 years, so it was the least we could do." (Kohli is 22. He was one when Tendulkar started playing cricket.) I admit, I got a little teary at that part.
PS: I hope everyone noticed that Rajnikanth was there in the stands, cheering the team on. If he were playing, he would've got the entire SL team out. With one ball. (What? We won the World Cup, I believe a few bad Rajnikanth jokes are now due.)
