I come from a country where brains defeat muscles, thought defeats might!
I always thought of cricket as a game of power and endurance, a display of strength and tolerance!!
So even though I was cheering for team India yesterday, I had this deep fear : How will such an innocent looking team defeat a mighty and powerful looking one(especially looking at Malinga sent chills down my spine :P, its high time he changes that hairstyle) ?
Will it take wonders to do that?
My fear was baseless, all it took was a cool-nerved captain guiding a spirited team and making smarts moves at the right moments!And another important ingredient of this victory was the temperament of the young players in the team (Gambhir really stood upto his name(brave)).This was'nt a one-time coup for the team, it was the result of well coordinated hard-work match after match , raising their level to brilliant standards!
I have a great deal of respect for Sachin and I wanted the team to win, if not for the 1.2 billion people praying for them atleast for this one man who stood by them and by the game for years together!
And after the victory I was dumbstruck seeing his happiness!!This was the best present he could have got!
Sometimes it gives us great pleasure seeing happy faces all around!
Well if you are ready to read further I'd be happy to relive the experience of watching the world cup match with a 500+ crowd in our hostel lawns.
First of all, you should have seen the expression on the face of our warden, when she realised that its gonna be an out-of-control crowd of girls out there!
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| the setup |
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The first innings was a show of good fielding by all and excellent bowling by Zaheer (well his fan base has increased courtesy his new hairstyle and 3 opening maiden overs :P :) )
But the score was big 274, courtesy amazing innings of Jaywardene :) and a few loose balls of Sreesanth :P !!
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| some nail biting moments |
As the crowd built up for the second innings the sky was darkening and the weather was cool and perfect,but the tension of chasing a big score of 274 was hung midair.
Every face in the crowd was painted with the tricolor!!Maybe it takes a game of cricket for our patriotism to spring out :P!
When Shewag went duck-out the sudden gloominess was evident, the oooohss and the oshitttss were echoing.
Well Sachin was and will always be the crowd's favourite; but when he was caught within the next few overs, all our heartbeats fastened! The world cup ,without the masterblaster at the crease, seemed distant.Well, Gambhir bought it nearer, near enough to feel the heat!If only he had heard us whistling for him!
Every four or six saw girls leap out of the crowd dancing,cheering,hooting and making it a matter of joy!
Malinga became the target of boooers!! All conundrum rose into the night sky!!
After the fall of Kohli, the crowd though surprised with Dhonis entry at 5, hooted and cheered for him!
Well the Ranchi dynamite proved to be a true lifesaver! Every shot of him was admired!
When Gamtam broke his bat the crowd hooted out loud !!
But suddenly alas!! poor Gautam fell short of just 3 runs for a century.
Then came Yuvi- UV ;) (utterly vicious)
And from then the count of number of balls vs number of runs kept us biting our nails till the cuticles hurt :P
Every four blocked felt like a bullet missing its target! Whenever the ball rose higher, so did our hearts(but there wasn't any reason to worry, both of them won't fall into wrong hands :P) !
During the last few overs the crowd almost went crazy! Ball-by-ball the cheer rose ! And then Dhoni's final SIX!!The crowd went mad, it was a carnival of uncontrolled souls shouting till their throats went dry! I am still recovering from partial deafness, pardon me I can't recollect what followed this burst of happiness!
All that I remember was seeing Sachin on other player's shoulders being carried round the ground! But in our lawns there was a different kind of victory lap, people were running around forming human chains shouting out loud 'Jai hind'...Patriotic fervour had reached amazing heights!!Maybe cricket was just an excuse- a win for INDIA was the real reason!
I couldn't see Bhajji crying; happiness makes people cry- how strange are human reactions!
And happiness makes people go crazy- something I knew but I hadn't witnessed till yesterday!The shouts,the slogans,the thumps and the claps still echo in my mind ; making me realise how lucky I'm to be a part of a country where the nation's win is everybody's win; where expression of happiness over victory knows no bounds! Be it Wankhede or Thirumalaisamudram (our campus) there is no difference, everywhere everybody's soul gorges the sense of bliss that comes along with victory especially the victory of our own nation, not in war but in a game---the game of cricket!!!
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| Jeet gaye hum!!!Champions! |
Such moments give us reasons to cherish this short life!And to realize that every moment is just a step away from succees.
don't fear the unknown.
