All’s well that ends well

I couldn’t find better words than this proverb. After racial row, I wrote in my earlier blog that “the tour will be known for all the wrong reasons”, but brigade Dhoni made me wrong by waving the Indian Flag in Brisbane. They proved their mettle in ODIs too after bagging the coveted crown of shorter version (T20) of the game. Down Under tour was the real acid test for T20 world champions. By two consecutive final wins, Indian Champs proved that they are not World Champions by stroke of luck. At the start of ODI series, we were hoping a better luck for India but never expected such promising win over arrogant Aussies. Aussies bogged down in the same net which they weaved for Indian team. They tried every bit to sidetrack the attention of Indian team, but while playing the mind game they forgot to keep their attention intact on cricket and that cost them a series defeat. Kudos to M.S. Dhoni for his exponential leadership in keeping the young blood composed. Harbhajan Singh had been a constant target for criticism by Aussie players and their media as well, but in the finals, The Obnoxious Weed (Bhajji) turned into an Awl and pierced their pride by sending two key opponents (Hayden & Symonds) off the field. Aussies were afraid of losing the CB Series again as the last time it was won by England and they didn’t want to miss the opportunity as this was the last CB Series and they wanted the cup to stay in their hand only. The second reason was the retirement of Adam Gilchrist and they wanted to give a good farewell to him by winning the cup back home, but fate had decided to favor Indian team by putting them in a situation which they never dreamt of in their wildest dreams. Sachin ones again played pivotal role in smashing kangaroos, but among all sublime performance, missing century brought a tad disappointment for his admirers like me. Indian team seems to have got the knack of facing Finale Pressures which cost Indian cricket number of wins in the past. Among all weighty contributions by Indian batsmen, I won’t forget congratulating our bowling attack which did a splendid job and paved way for this long awaited victory. Discovery of fast bowlers like Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar gave India a chance to boast of having world class fast bowling attack. Yuvraj Singh and Robin Uthappa showed average performance throughout the series, they need to spend some more time on nets and in domestic cricket as well.

Chak diya India – Jai Hind