Sitting at the place I hate the most, my desk at the office, I was staring at the monitor!
"India requires 13 runs off 6 balls" read the comment on a famous website....! In the next 5 mins, I was frantically refreshing the page to know the outcome of the match! All of a sudden, someone shouted "Chak Diya India!".....ALAS! I knew it was all over and India has clinched the series against all odds!
This win was very special..not because Indians beat the "sledging"Oz, but that they handled the pressure really well than most teams have (in australia) and came out at the top! It would be an understatement to say that the aussies, well known for handling the pressure of a "final" match, were in shambles in both the ODIs, more so in the first match! They never expected a young Indian team to stand upto their challenge and thrash them in the own back yard. Probably their over-confidence ate them up and they realized it a bit too late in the second ODI!!
As I said in an earlier post.......CONFIDENCE was the key to India's over-whelming success run at the finals of the CB series. I'ver never seen Sahin Tendulkar bat with such fevour in recent times......he seemed a changed man......and the aussies had no way to stop him! While Praveen Kumar, who has played only in 5-8 ODIs, showed his capability by ripping through the australian top-order with amazing ease, Piyush Chawla marked the arrival another fielding sensation with one 'brilliant' catch in each of the finals! These youngsters 'believed' in their capabilities and when one possesses self-belief, nothing can deter one from achieving the goals!!!
People may speculate that the two "sharmas" (Ishant and Rohit) are the find of the series.....no wonder they are.....but they have to be watched closely in the upcoming series against South Africa, another tough opponent, before going overboard and making them heros..!
The real find of the series, in my opinion, is the aggressive nature and the confidence of the players combined with a great team spirit...
I saw numerous debates on news channels on whether "India is the new champion in world cricket"....I feel this is ridiculous.....to be a world champion...a team has to be consistent atleast 80 percent of the times and at all venues it plays....Remember, it took a decade for the australian team to reach where they are today!
Indian cricket team, I feel, is only at the beginning stages and has a really long journey, before it can be crowned the ultimate king in the gentleman's game!! What do you say??
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