sports

from four to six-road to the cup that counts.........

I knew it is going to be longer one than any other posts that I have posted in my blog, when I thought of writing a summary post for Indian campaign in Cricket World Cup 2011. There were so many upsets, turn-downs, break-throughs throughout the tournament, and team India had tackled hard games and great pressures to reach finals and clinch the title after 28 years. It is the collective result of Cool Captaincy, Team Performance, Hard Experiences together. This Indian team is not so familiar, though they were still dependent on their batting, I could watch a more secure India, which comprised young Indians who can handle the home pressure and experienced men who can lead the team all through the tournament. They got compliments which they deserved from Ricky Ponting, Shahid Afridi and even Kumar Sangakkara after each knock-out games they had dodged and stormed in. I had been waiting for 43 days to make a binary post on CWC'11, and it is a 1 over 0 for me now. We will go from match 1...

'Bang'ing start

     The tournament started with a flashy drive to boundary from the trusted Virender Sehwag against the Bangladesh. It was all blitzkrieg as it was the first revenge game for Team India against Bangladesh who smashed the world cup dreams in 2007. But the opponents were grit on chasing the huge target 371 and fell short of only 87 runs. Once again Indian bowling was poor I could say, which was recovered massively later in the tournament.

The 'Tie'

     Second match for India was against the English, who were one of the predicted contenders India had faced. But the match was a zig-zag. It seemed to be in favor of either team in sharp moments. Much of turnarounds happened and the result was an achievement - a tie, and the credit goes to Zaheer and Shahzad.

Minnows

     Next two matches were against the Minnows Ireland and Netherlands, who performed well against the English, but failed to make an impression against the hosts as India won both matches by 5 wickets.

Lost match

    It was against the mighty proteas the team India lost their tails and so nerves. Losing 9 wickets for 29 runs, after being in a position of 267-1 with Sachin on crease, is really horrible. They couldn't even make it to a 300 as Steyn stroke through the middle and tail, and stormed to a 5 wicket haul. 296 was a below par total for the South African batting line up but the match was lost by only three wickets and two balls left. Disappointed but not so much. Literally this loss helped as a booster to team India.

Strike back

     Final group stage match was against Windies, and this was the first all bowling match of the tournament for team India. Chasing a total of 269 and being in a position of 154-2 will really put any opponent under immense pressure, but the young Indian Bowling attack with Ashwin and Zaheer from front dodged the dreams of West Indies to storm in to knock out with a smash, and it was team India which flashed into the knock-outs with a victory margin of 80.

Quarter Final

    And the party began from here for India. They were to play against their old rivals of 2003 finals - the current champions then - Australia. Real domination of spin had begun. Ashwin was amazing throughout the game with 8 power play overs and the penultimate over, had just given an economy of 5.2 and taken 2 important wickets. Unlike the 2003 final, this time century of Ponting had gone in vain as the Yuvraj and Raina lead the team India to victory and it was all chaos for Ricky. During press meet he accepted India as a better team and favored it to win the semi-finals against Pakistan, who stopped the Australian winning streak earlier. Thus the Australians retired from the World Cup Domination after 12 years.

Semi Final - The Clash of Titans

     It was the most awaited match than the final as India and Pakistan met in Mohali. This time it was not really a prestige game, but a pressure game. But the players from both the sides shown extreme game spirit, and Afridi, far better than what he had been as a youngster with tensions and emotions, had shown how a captain should behave. Once again it was India beat Pakistan in a World Cup match, but no more shout against the latter as they played extremely well and the only person blamed was Misbah who had been on crease for long time without scoring enough runs to match the Indians. In reality, India bowled well against him and he couldn't do much against the mightier.

Final - The Fairy Tale Ending

     April 2, 2011 - the day which will be remembered the most. Indian President Devi Prathiba Patil and Sri Lankan President Rajapakse, Bollywood stars, Kollywood King Super Star Rajnikanth, Rahul Gandhi, and so on till the list ends' present at the New Wankhede Stadium was just like a Who's Who. Immense pressure on both sides. Srilanka had stormed in the finals with classy victories in group matches and knock-outs against England and New Zealand. Dilshan, Sangakkara, Tharanga, Malinga and the Champion Murali playing his last ODI made a powerful combination for the previous 43 days which literally gave no chance for the middle order to feel any pressure. Indian side had been playing all pressure games and their confidence lied on control over their play. No more reckoning first over from Zaheer, remarkable maiden indeed. Bowling three consecutive maidens and taking the wicket of a well established opener of the tournament was another pearl added to the mighty Zaheer's crown. But in the end of the innings it was all splattered over boundaries for the century maker Jayawardene and long shots from the finisher Perera. Sri Lankans all together got a much more defendable total of 274, which is also possible to be chased down. 

    Indian innings started with a big collapse of Viru off the second ball of the innings, followed by Sachin's caught behind wicket. Then came the Kolkata nightmare pair, Gauti and Kohli who stabilized the innings, and Kohli departed of a flier catch from Dilshan. Captain Dhoni brings himself up in the order and gave a sensational partnership with Gautam, who departed 3 short of a glorious century. Finally Dhoni comes back to form and ended the tournament with a straight six. THE CUP WAS WON!!! CWC'11 started with a four of Sehwag, ended with a six from Dhoni.

     Dhoni adjudged man of the match and Yuvraj Singh was given the Player of the Series award. Captain lifts the cup and the other team members carried the Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar around the stadium with much joy. This little man really deserves to carry the World Cup and the Cup itself deserves to be carried by Sachin. The big Indians refuse to be beaten and shown their extreme ability and nerves to clinch the Cup. The greatest moment was when the fans could see their favorites weep - Tears of joy around Wankhede - fantasy ending as a fairy tale. 

     

BLEED BLUE!!!
                                                  ashish
ADVANTAGE INDIA......




First day was the worst day. Both the Indian singles lost their respective matches to their Brazilian opponents and after that day it was all smiles over the Chennai crowd as India made its perfect comeback from 0-2 to 3-2. If it was the veteran pair Paes-Bhupathi who brought their nation to life in the Davis Cup, it is young Devvarman to bring to a tie and Bopanna to ensure its Victory. This victory helped India to join the elite world group to have won the tie after being 0-2 down. The 30 year old Indian after the fresh doubles show in the US Open with Aisam Qureshi, delivered his excellent single outcome here. Another single blast Devvarman was referring the earlier defeats as a saviorship match. He mentioned,"..friday didn't hurt us, in fact it helped us". While talking about Paes, Bhupati explained that Paes plays a level higher than usual when he plays for the country. And the 37year old veteran who completed his 20 year tennis journey said it was the young teammates deserved the victory. Now India has secured what it has required and they look forward for February and to win the first round to ensure avoiding the play-offs. Hail India....!!!.....CHECK TO THE STALEMATE

Most of us might have been familiar with the Indian Crab story. It is the story about how a fisherman kept a basket with crabs  uncovered, and when asked about not closing with lid, he replied "They are Indian Crabs; If one tries to climb up, the other will not let it go and they will pull it back in, hence there is no need for a lid". All right, It is a old story, probably used to teach kids about unity and it is outdated now as India and Indians have improved a far better level. But this story came to my mind when I heard about Vishy's Doctorate Controversy. Asking nationality about a man who made his country proud and an upstanding level in International Chess arena is totally out of sanity.

He appeared to be little hurt when the nationality crisis started and his wife Aruna Anand had immediately faxed his passport and it was sent to the HRD ministry immediately. Treating persons like Anand in this manner will surely disappoint them and their career. Though he had controversies around his neck he tackled 40 mathematicians  beat 39 of them, drawn a match to Srikar Varadaraj - a 14 year old teen from Bangalore. Anand looked cool all around the play and said "I always played under Indian flag and held Indian passport right from the time I took my first overseas trip. I came here to play chess and to enjoy the conference. So let us leave it at that". Aruna later said "Every time he plays a match, the tricolor is placed beside his table, and when he won the world championship, the National Anthem was played. He never bothered about these awards. But asking to prove his nationality is disappointing."

HRD minister Kapil Cibal apologised  to  Anand and  said "I told him that we are sorry for what has transpired. It should not take time [to implement such decisions], but sometime it happens. He has done India proud like Arjun Atwal [who won a top professional golf championship in the U.S. on Monday]. We should be proud of those who climb the heights of global excellence and keep the Indian flag flying.” Meanwhile, Vice Chancellor of the University of Hyderabad Seyed E. Hasnain met Mr Sibal on Tuesday to sort out the issue. He said "There was a system failure, but things have been sorted out and he [Mr. Anand] will be given the degree,”, as clearing the deadlock.

Thanks for Cibal to end the controversy in a smooth manner. Most of the Indian sportsmen prefer to stay in Europe as most of the world tournaments takes place around the continent. By means of just staying there, doesn't mean they are not Indian citizen. They work from outside the country to make the country proud and up on the stage. We have excellent individual sportspersons and they should not be constrained within the sub continent. Only few Indians take sports as their career. It would be better if we let them have some freedom and help to get expertised with International arena. It is every Indian's responsibility to upgrade other Indians. Let an Indian be an Indian....