It has been an amazing amazing last ten days in the world of cricket and in the life of a Team India fan. The cynicism, the doubts and the criticism that the naysayer harped on, all came crashing down last night when the team held that cup. The excitement levels matched with the lack of sleep ever since the quarter final game with Australia has given a delirious feeling of high which can't be matched by anything in the world. The media, social networking sites and sms'es had gone viral with the hopes, aspirations and belief of the impending victory. The comparison to the 1983 final were made and the fact that the dates were exactly the same brought in more hope, aspirations and belief. The comparisons did in fact have a bit in them after Sri Lanka pushed the Indians on the back foot with a very good score and two quick wickets had us up against the wall. That Dhoni replicated Kapil Dev would not be an understatement and the victory cemented that equation if there were any doubts.
The epic question, "Where were you when India won the World Cup after 28 years?" is going to be asked for years to come and there would be a smile, a smile that comes straight from the heart, when we answer that question for most of us we were there with family, with good...no make that great friends and with the players themselves. The clapping on every run scored, the high fives on every boundaries and, as a friend put it very aptly, a mini heart attack on every ball all turned into jubilation when the winning runs were smashed over the boundary for a massive six and an even massive celebrations! The Nile had been parted again, the water turned into wine again and India had won the World Cup once again. The team who had vowed to bring in the most prized reward of the game to offer it to the "God" of cricket had not disappointed.
The game had turned in a lot of heroes and the way the youngsters showed the resilience and the maturity when the most experience pair of Indian batting were sent back for hardly any score on the board shows that we have finally started to believe that nothing is impossible. No one piece of article would be complete without mentioning the likes of Gautam Gambhir who came close to that century in the WC final, Kohli who did well to apply himself in and not give in his wicket, Yuvraj for contributing as much with the ball as with the bat, Zak for that brilliant first spell and last but not the least M S Dhoni who has really does absorb the tension and remains icy cool in the hottest of the conditions. He had led India to the famous victory at the T20 World Cup and there was a slight hope, a little wish and huge expectations that this may be the man who brings in the big one and last night that hope saw the light, the wish was fulfilled and the expectation bore fruit. The look in his eyes when he hit the winning runs for a six showed the intent and the determination of the man with a purpose.
Then there was the post match interviews and the one that will be remembered for years to come was from the young Virat Kohli who uttered with great maturity the following lines - "He's carried the burden of our nation for 21 years, it was time to carry him on our shoulders today."
If the way he contributed with the bat and this maturity continues who knows there would be a day where we would be getting carried on the shoulders and with the talent he's shown and this level of maturity, here's hoping he does.
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