It wasn't one of the perfect ways to begin a weekend. I woke up with the irritating thought that I had to go to the College to show the prototype of my final year project to my Internal Guide and to the Head of the Department. It wasn't a review though. The only respite being the fact that the breakfast at College had to be Vegetable Pulav since it was a Saturday and that's probably the only reason we attended College on Saturdays in the past 4 years. Much to our surprise the prototype worked perfectly well and we were in for a good amount of appreciation from the staff. Corrections were made in the rough draft of our report and we were all set to start back to home to catch the World Cup Final just in time.
I received phone calls from couple of my friends who wanted me to come to Skywalk to view the match in the big screen. I wanted to go, but my body wasn't willing to cooperate since I had just arrived home with the sun beating down on me for the past 1.5 hours. I chose to watch the match in television and probably when I get out of my tiredness I thought I would proceed to watch it in the big screen along with them. The toss took me into surprise as it looked more the gully cricket like for many reasons. "The toss is crucial." - I heard Ravi Shastri's dialogue-programmed voice in my mind from nowhere as it was total turmoil on the screen what I was witnessing at that moment. And no wonder Shastri too was part of the scene of crime. When Dhoni lost the toss the second time it was tossed, I almost had the thought that we lost the game. It was more like Ganguly winning the toss and chosing to field during the 2003 Final. Never mind, I thought we had equal chances of winning the game by the lucky loss with the toss.
My Dad and Mom who are all-time Cricket haters too joined me before the idiot-box to catch the Final. We were going great guns both with the bowling and fielding, forget Sreesanth! But I also had this crazy thought in one corner that Sree was also a part of the T20 WC Final winning team's playing eleven. I wished history repeated itself for this guy somehow that Saturday despite his terrible bowling. I dozed away after Sangakkara and Jayawardene started building up their partnership. The run rate kept oscillating just around 4.00 RPO. I woke up after the 40th over only to see our bowlers getting thrashed in the batting powerplay during the death and Jayawardene removing his helmet to mark his century. 274/6 was no mean score in a WC Final. Chasing it in Mumbai carrying a billion hopes is gonna be a real test of character for our guys. I kept my fingers crossed as Sachin and Sehwag walked in amidst the huge roar by the crowd. I was seeing Sachin walk into the pitch one last time in a WC match. I wished it wasn't his last ODI at least for what few suckers stirred up such a crazy rumor.
My Mom on the other hand started making coconut boli, a sweet, for dinner saying that India would definitely win the Cup. But what followed was a shock which would have caused me nausea had I been eating that moment. Sehwag getting out the second ball for a gold-coated duck and Sachin falling for 18, but playing an elegant and exquisite innings during that brief stay. A hot coconut boli came into my plate and I gave a confusing look at my Mom. She chuckled and said that the best is yet to come. My sentiments came to my mind for a moment. I usually had the habit of staying away from the television set whenever the Indian team was in a crisis. Even if it was against a team as bad as Afghanistan! I moved out from the drawing room into my room to sit before my PC and started playing few Hindi songs and had my supper.
I seriously felt that my 'sweet' dinner wasn't getting into my throat. I had become a choker! It took me an hour and ten minutes to finish my dinner!!! I only wished that the team didn't choke badly to face a loss similar to what happened in 2003. I opened a tab for Cricinfo to update me with whats happening at the Wankhede. I gulped two bottles of water as I felt the heat. Kohli and Gambhir were steadying the ship well. "Gambhir kannula oru fire theriyudhu!" (I could see fire in Gambhir's eyes!) came an SMS. I wished that it continued as my sentiments were working out perfectly. Kohli was out after an 83 run stand with Gauti. Well done! I had my instincts telling that Dhoni would come next ahead of Yuvraj and play a mammoth innings, at least to maintain the Right-Left combination at the crease. And lo...!!! Update came that Dhoni had stepped in. Instincts Part 1 - check! It was now Dhoni's turn to check the Part 2 too. The scoreboard ticked and ticked every moment. Wonderful! Rajnikant was trending in Twitter as well. Dhoni crossed his 50 and Gauti approached his century only to fall 3 runs short. It was a victory knock without any argument. After Yuvraj coming in, it was itching for me to go back to the hall and catch the remaining action as victory seemed more certain now. I just hoped that they did not throw away their wickets and put up another great-Indian-collapse!
As I was worrying on this regard, Yuvraj pulled one for a boundary and Dhoni slammed one for a SIX over the point an over later. I had come to watch at the right time! Dhoni escaped a run-out and things seemed normal soon. Every over had couple of boundaries from then and the duo were ripping off towards remaking history. Mom was clapping her hands even before the winning shot was made. Crackers went on instantly in my locality even before that. I was going to witness something very astonishing and unusual and shall be remembering it for the rest of my lifetime or probably tell this even to my grandchildren! Kulasekara's delivery was rocket-launched by Dhoni for a SIX and I erupted, the crowd erupted and of course the entire nation erupted! I witnessed it at last. Every member of the team getting emotional, Sachin being carried around the ground on a victory lap, the team lifting the WorldCup, all those were truly amazing and priceless moments that must be relished and cherished by every Indian indeed. While going to bed post midnight, I just realized that my sentiments worked and my Mom's sweet worked as well! LOL! :D
Leaving you with the visuals of victory! :)
DHONI LAUNCHING HIS HELICOPTER AT LAST....
WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS...!!! :) :) :)
6 comments:
Nice article Ashwin. I was watching it through Cricinfo streaming with a delay of 1-min as my Internet was slow, I allowed it to load and then watched. Infact, during Srilankan innings, I had a 5-minute delay :-). At 31-2, I thought it was gone. I didn't expect Gambhir or Kohli or Dhoni to play well, thanks to Poonam :-p .. just joking. nice article. all the best!
To be honest, YES, I thought we had given the cup away at 31-2. Just couldn't digest stuff and my dinner as well. :P
sehwag getting out in the same fashion like how he got out in SF was horrible to watch. kohli's stand was very vital. he has a very bright future, no doubt.
Yeah, Kohli is too early to have achieved an Under-19 WC (yeah that's early right?) ;-) and the main WorldCup, that too being his first one. Talented and lucky fellow.
I never lost hope while watching though i felt jittery. We have more match winners now than ever. We are no more dependent on Sachin and Sehwag. ;-) Good one Ashwin.
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