Hats Off!

I know there are going to be plenty of articles/blog entries popping up worldwide about India's brilliant performance yesterday, so I'll just cut out the stuff about how much India sucked and how fantastic Bangladesh was and all. You can read about that elsewhere.
I've always been a glass half full type, so I'll throw in a little tribute to the Indian cricket team. For all those who didn't see the Ireland vs. Pakistan match, you really missed something. And that's where my story starts.
Disgusted with Team India's performance, I began to see the Pak vs. Irl match. (A little note here - us Indians are so self centred as far as cricket is concerned that we actually had two whole channels telecasting the same horrible match in which India got belted, and needed a third channel for the second match!) That match gave me a great feeling 'cause not only had Pakistan put up a lower score than India, but also had done it against a lower ranked, non-test-playing nation! As I was watching, I realised that Umar Gul was giving the poor little Irish batsman a mouthful every follow through. As more and more Pakistani bowlers came up to bowl, I realised that, in an Andre Nel-esque manner, most were either sledging or giving these really filthy stares or spitting in front of the batsmen or something of the sort. And I kept switching channels to see our match, and to the best of my knowledge, no Indian bowler did that. (This might also be due to the fact that I see all Indian cricketers through rose tinted glasses, but I really didn't notice anything of the sort.) And then I felt very warmed.
Our bowlers are not only more experienced than the Bangladeshi batsman, but also older (and I think this makes a huge difference). We could easily have made them feel unhinged by sledging and made our job a lot easier. But we didn't. In a very similar situation, the Pakistani bowlers just lost all control. Which got me thinking.
You win some, you lose some. Some days, you'll belt a team ranked way above you, others you'll lose to teams ranked way below you. It's all a part of sport. And life. Some days you're the windshield, others, you're the insect. The important thing being that you don't lose your dignity no matter what. India might've lost the match yesterday, but our players walked out with our dignity firmly intact. And for that, hats off to them!