I don't know how much justice I can do to the match, but I can't, absolutely CANNOT but write this. So here goes.
A short recap of the pre-final matches for those out of touch with cricket. India-England: India made 218 from their twenty, with Yuvraj hitting six sixes in the 19th over off Stuart Broad (though the fault was entirely Andrew Flintoff's!) and reaching 50 off 12 balls in the process. England never really got off and India won by 18 runs. India-SA: I don't think anyone expected us to win this one, but we did anyway. With a meagre 153 on the board, we looked to be heading straight out of the WC. But our bowlers did a fantastic job, not only winning the match, but sending tournament favourites SA home* as well. India-Australia: Even fewer people thought we'd make it through this one, but I daresay a lot more hoped. Semi-finals against the world champs and our boys had nothing to prove and no expectations to live up to. And we beat the Aussies by 15 whole runs (HUGE margin in T20) defending 188. We'd made it to the finals, where Pakistan lay in wait.
India-Pakistan finals. Three words that can send chills up your spine and set your heart aglow at the same time. All post college extra classes were mass bunked. All roads were buzzing with people dying to get home between 5 and 5.30. At six, the roads were empty. The world (or all I know of it, anyway!) was glued to the TV.
India started fabulously, with Yusuf Pathan, big bro of Irfan, hitting a HEE-YOOOGE six in his very first over in international cricket, off Md. Asif nonetheless. Then we began to falter, and before we knew what on earth hit us, we were struggling at 40-2, and salvaged some pride only thanks to Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma. 157, enough on the Jo'burg belter? Never! At least that's what we THOUGHT.
Pakistan came out to bat, and RP Singh took a wicket in his very first over. We were thrilled (duh!) but that was short lived - our very own Sree Santh went for 21 in his first. The next 14 overs are summarised below:
Kamran Akmal clean bowled by RP, Imran Nazir run out to a fabulous 50 yard direct hit by Uthappa, Younis Khan out to Joginder Sharma with Yusuf Pathan taking his first international catch, Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi both caught off Irfan Pathan's bowling in the same over, and Yasir Arafat bowled by him in his next. All of this with A LOT of belting. But with four overs left and 54 left to score, we all thought, 'Ah! We can make it easily', having done exactly that against the Aussies. But the Pakistanis were not giving up that soon.
With Harbhajan's third and India's seventeenth over going for 3 sixes, Dhoni had to give the ball to one of his strike bowlers. And who did he choose? Sree Santh. Who got absolutely thulped. Pakistan needed 35 to win with 3 wickets in hand before his over, after, they needed 20 with 2 wickets in hand. He'd given the 15 (much to our horror) but taken the all important wicket. Dhoni then chose to go with RP Singh for the penultimate over, which was a mini-stroke of genius because he gave away just 7 runs and took Umar Gul for nought. Pakistan needed 13 of the last over with a wicket in hand. Misbah Ul-Haq still eluded, though. Joginder, who'd gone for plenty earlier, was brought on to bowl the last. I was nothing short of a ball of nerves.
With the first ball of the over being called wide, the curses flew thick and fast. 12 off 6. The second ball was a swing and a miss from Ul-Haq. 12 off 5. The third ball broke a billion hearts as it flew for a straight six. 6 off 4, and all hope gone. The next ball was something which my mum and I agree has got nothing to do with cricket or even strength of character or prudence. It's just karma. Just scripted. The Gods simply wanted us to win. Misbah Ul-Haq croaked for the second time in a week and a half, scooping the ball to short fine-leg and straight into Sree Santh's wide open arms. We had clinched a thriller.
The hour that followed was a flurry of celebrations. The entire past two weeks have been, actually. A reverie of sorts. I'm just glad we came out a micron luckier.
We celebrated late into the night. (Okay, only 12, but that's late by our standards!) Today, as expected, tons of jokes and articles have started doing the rounds. Eg.
Knock-knock!
Who's there?
Misbah.
Misbah who?
Mis-bah 5 runs!
College was brilliant, with most of us dressed in blue (and even a handful in Team India jerseys) and singing 'Chak De India!' and 'We Are The Champions!'. And so the saga continues. Life goes on, but happier. The Men In Blue have taken our blues away.
*Technically, they were at home anyway, but you get what I mean!
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Saturday, September 15, 2007
The Messrs Hit Hit Bang Bang
I'm willing to bet that the number of blog entries posted across India today is at least double the average. And everyone who does post one is completely justified in doing so, yesterday being a completely blog-worthy day!
Let's start at the very beginning. I've always got a lot of flack from a lot of my friends who think cricket is too slow and too long. Twenty20 brings exactly what a lot of people complained about the lack of in cricket - excitement. And I for one am loving it.
My grandad isn't too thrilled with the whole idea. He said, and I quote, 'In 2017, we'll be watching 10-a-side matches, ten years after that, one over per team. I don't think they can take it below that, though'. Which brings me to my point. T20, in every way, is a game for youngsters. (My mum should be thrilled with this assessment. She loves T20!)
Yesterday's last match was nothing short of a thriller. The morning match was the real high scoring one - Sri Lanka made 260-odd against the Kenyans. But in my opinion, Harsha Bhogle made an excellent observation. He said the match left him cold. Because that's not what cricket should be about. It isn't really as much fun if every bowler's economy rate is over 8 and the outfields doctored to push the ball to the boundary. Give the bowlers a pitch with a little something in it and T20 cricket could be something more than just a display of mindless hitting. And that's exactly why yesterday's India-Pak match was brilliant. That, and the fact that India won.
I don't really think it's necessary for me to write a match report or anything of the sort. However, for the souls far removed for cricket, here goes. Md. Asif started off the match by taking a wicket each in each of his four overs. India looked absolutely down in the dumps. Robin Uthappa, however, did his best to turn things around with a nice partership with Dhoni, only to be dismissed immediately after his 50. The rest of the innings was a whole lot of swinging of the bat, with a little cameo from Pathan in the middle. India, surprisingly, reached 141-9.
Needing only 142,(Yeah folks, ONLY 142. ONLY 7.1 an over. That's T20 for you!) Pakistan seemed clear favourites. But wait! India had other plans. Some nice bowling from our openers, backed up by an absolutely inspired spell from Pathan (including a double* wicket maiden), in turn backed up by a brilliant spell from Harbhajan, ensured that India was on the brink of victory. The dropped Afridi catch notwithstanding. But we all know the Indian team has the uncanny ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. They NEARLY did. Misbah Ul-Haq and Yasir Arafat brought it down to 1 required off 2 to win. The first delivery of the two, Ul-Haq missed completely. On the second one, it seemed like they had the game but some great fielding from India led to Pakistan finishing their 20 at 141-7. It was a tie that needed breaking.
And then there came a little something that I enjoyed thoroughly, but that was entirely because we won. I would have cursed it thoroughly had we lost, and I have no qualms about admitting it. One of football's joys is the penalty shootout, and now cricket has it's very own version. The bowl out. Each team nominates five bowlers to bowl at the stumps alternately, till one team has more stumps down than the other. To put it in a nutshell, Sehwag hit, Arafat missed, Harbhajan hit, Gul missed, Uthappa hit, Afridi missed and India won 3-0. Elation!
Everyone has their own take on this version of the game, and I'm no different. Personally, I love it. It's short enough to keep the game from getting boring - not a dull moment in T20 - and at the same time long enough to make sure real talent and efforts count. The other great thing about this ultra shortened version is that it is a great leveller. We saw a team dogged by controversy and hence consisting of mere schoolboys beat the undisputed world champs. As I speak, Bangladesh, the so-called minnows who have already sent the Windies home, have hit 76 off the first 7 overs against a solid SA side. You can't afford even a single moment of laxness, or the opposition can have a moment of brilliance which has you with your back to the wall.
What makes this World Cup enjoyable is more than just the whackfest. There's the additional advantage that since Dhoni-led India has absolutely no chance of winning the cup or even coming close, we can view every match as a bonus and watch it tensionlessly.
* The first ball of this over yielded a wicket, albeit a run out. Later in the over, Pathan picked up his first with a beautiful ball. So wicket maiden or double wicket maiden? Go figure. Whatever you decide, it's a rarity in this game. Which is why, for me, Pathan was the man of the match, not Md. Asif. Then again, my nationality might have something to do with it...
Let's start at the very beginning. I've always got a lot of flack from a lot of my friends who think cricket is too slow and too long. Twenty20 brings exactly what a lot of people complained about the lack of in cricket - excitement. And I for one am loving it.
My grandad isn't too thrilled with the whole idea. He said, and I quote, 'In 2017, we'll be watching 10-a-side matches, ten years after that, one over per team. I don't think they can take it below that, though'. Which brings me to my point. T20, in every way, is a game for youngsters. (My mum should be thrilled with this assessment. She loves T20!)
Yesterday's last match was nothing short of a thriller. The morning match was the real high scoring one - Sri Lanka made 260-odd against the Kenyans. But in my opinion, Harsha Bhogle made an excellent observation. He said the match left him cold. Because that's not what cricket should be about. It isn't really as much fun if every bowler's economy rate is over 8 and the outfields doctored to push the ball to the boundary. Give the bowlers a pitch with a little something in it and T20 cricket could be something more than just a display of mindless hitting. And that's exactly why yesterday's India-Pak match was brilliant. That, and the fact that India won.
I don't really think it's necessary for me to write a match report or anything of the sort. However, for the souls far removed for cricket, here goes. Md. Asif started off the match by taking a wicket each in each of his four overs. India looked absolutely down in the dumps. Robin Uthappa, however, did his best to turn things around with a nice partership with Dhoni, only to be dismissed immediately after his 50. The rest of the innings was a whole lot of swinging of the bat, with a little cameo from Pathan in the middle. India, surprisingly, reached 141-9.
Needing only 142,(Yeah folks, ONLY 142. ONLY 7.1 an over. That's T20 for you!) Pakistan seemed clear favourites. But wait! India had other plans. Some nice bowling from our openers, backed up by an absolutely inspired spell from Pathan (including a double* wicket maiden), in turn backed up by a brilliant spell from Harbhajan, ensured that India was on the brink of victory. The dropped Afridi catch notwithstanding. But we all know the Indian team has the uncanny ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. They NEARLY did. Misbah Ul-Haq and Yasir Arafat brought it down to 1 required off 2 to win. The first delivery of the two, Ul-Haq missed completely. On the second one, it seemed like they had the game but some great fielding from India led to Pakistan finishing their 20 at 141-7. It was a tie that needed breaking.
And then there came a little something that I enjoyed thoroughly, but that was entirely because we won. I would have cursed it thoroughly had we lost, and I have no qualms about admitting it. One of football's joys is the penalty shootout, and now cricket has it's very own version. The bowl out. Each team nominates five bowlers to bowl at the stumps alternately, till one team has more stumps down than the other. To put it in a nutshell, Sehwag hit, Arafat missed, Harbhajan hit, Gul missed, Uthappa hit, Afridi missed and India won 3-0. Elation!
Everyone has their own take on this version of the game, and I'm no different. Personally, I love it. It's short enough to keep the game from getting boring - not a dull moment in T20 - and at the same time long enough to make sure real talent and efforts count. The other great thing about this ultra shortened version is that it is a great leveller. We saw a team dogged by controversy and hence consisting of mere schoolboys beat the undisputed world champs. As I speak, Bangladesh, the so-called minnows who have already sent the Windies home, have hit 76 off the first 7 overs against a solid SA side. You can't afford even a single moment of laxness, or the opposition can have a moment of brilliance which has you with your back to the wall.
What makes this World Cup enjoyable is more than just the whackfest. There's the additional advantage that since Dhoni-led India has absolutely no chance of winning the cup or even coming close, we can view every match as a bonus and watch it tensionlessly.
* The first ball of this over yielded a wicket, albeit a run out. Later in the over, Pathan picked up his first with a beautiful ball. So wicket maiden or double wicket maiden? Go figure. Whatever you decide, it's a rarity in this game. Which is why, for me, Pathan was the man of the match, not Md. Asif. Then again, my nationality might have something to do with it...
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