We Are The Champs!!!

No Sachin! No Saurav! No Dravid! India was just a team before the start of the tournament with little or literally no hopes atleast making it to the semis. Ask anyone who’s gonna win the World cup some said Australia, some were booing with South Africa, some with SriLanka and few were even betting on the odds of even pitting a Bangladesh and Australia final and the minnows eventually screaming their way. But none in the wildest of their dreams ever dreamt of India making it to the semis.

The first match being washed out the uber superstitious Indians began to come out with their own speculations about the team’s another early exit and so and so forth. The second match well didn’t quite turn the table for the team, with the match being won on bowl-out well I guess the thing was more than controversial with the sort of method that was followed in my school when we played our archrivals during our school’s silver jubilee cup. Well the rules in our match and the ICC going for a detto I can’t just help laughing at the idea of the Bowl-out as a petty one which is as is the case of our team, we won on our archrivals as is the case with India having won it over Pakistan.

The match against kiwi’s was I guess the real turnaround with Dhoni admitting that the bowlers were culpable of giving more runs in the slog overs and might be this worked out as the bowlers really vented out the heat on the batsmen who came to chase against us. What followed was an exhilarating game of cricket and the rest is history. India might ‘ve well won the world cup but for the purists this form is just an advertising gimmick and as many would quite largely agree with that.

For me the beauty of cricket lies in a Test Match. It might be prosaic and prolix but it demands quite a lot more than just that. In twenty20 a team that bowls well for atleast 5 overs might win that particular match or like the other day if a batsman hits a bowler for consecutive sixes might. But here comes the beauty of test cricket. It’s not only about batting well but bowling and fielding well. A team which has performed on each of this area wins and the team that hasn’t is vanquished. This fact can’t be better recanted none other than by our own Indians who’ve witnessed one of the best ever matches played in the history of the game when we beat Australia after being made to Follow-on and then the lkes of laxman and Dravid who were immortalised eversince for their innings. And then if that were not enough the way the bowlers rallied around them eventually catapulting the match and the series to our favour.

The likes of Dravid, Laxman ‘ll forever be remembered for their innings and the class. They’ve took the game to an entirely different echelon. Cricket for me is like a symphony and a symphony in no meaner way can be finished in a span of 3 hours. Its an art which blooms with every stroke a batsman plays or with delivery a bowler bowls. In this so called mundane game one needs a craftsman to bring out the pulchritude in it. Might be this is for the first time after so long that the synecdoche “India are the Champs” has paid off.

“Wake up yaar, its the age of SMS and fastfood. So twenty20. No longtime nostalgia eh!!!