Chak Diya India

Motera: Aussies pulverized

Mohali: Pakistan conquered

Mumbai: Islanders obliterated

MSD: the Man who made it real from surreal

Today I think I’m writing the happiest lines of my life! We are the ODI world champions. On Saturday at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium, we regained the World Cup after a gap of 28 years.

The triumph highlighted the power of the collective team effort. Who would have imagined Team India chasing down a target of 275 with 10 balls to spare, with almost negligible contributions from Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar? Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his intrepid warriors now stand atop a pedestal hitherto occupied only by Kapil Dev’s squad, and India has become only the third country after Australia and the West Indies to win the World Cup more than once.

Why did we win? What was special about our team?

Self-belief, for one. During the entire tournament, team India kept the faith. Many of us despaired after we lost the toss under controversial circumstances. Many of us felt that 275 was a hard, if not impossible, target. Not the Men in Blue. They achieved the goal with calm and poise.

As for skipper MS Dhoni, I can only say, cometh the hour, cometh the man.

Let us accept this, once and for all: the man has the Midas touch. We can debate for ages whether he should have played Sreesanth or not. And I know that everybody would have castigated him for promoting himself above the in-form Yuvraj Singh. The point is, like any good leader, MSD takes a decision and then stick to it. If he manages to get the right result every time, who are we to question him. Like any true leader, Dhoni always leads from the front. He is forthright and honest. That’s what makes him special. Now he has won every prize in cricket. Surely, India is blessed to have a skipper like him. For a man who isn’t 30 yet, Dhoni’s equilibrium is unusual. But I suspect it is so because he doesn’t allow situations to burden him. Self-confidence is often misunderstood. In Dhoni’s case it appears confidence flows not from an arrogant belief that he is right. But in trusting his instinct for what that moment demands. So quietly he slips in among the troopers when Tendulkar is paraded around the ground, not even offering him his strong shoulders so the limelight isn’t shared. He punts on selections that confound the ‘experts’ and concedes them as mistakes even when they work out just fine!

This was Yuvraj Singh’s championship in many ways. He proved that winners never quit and that quitters never win. Struggling for form prior to the tournament , he became a force to reckon with as the tournament progressed.

While gifts galore the Indian cricket team, the IPL is just round the corner. As an Indian fan who is still on a high after the World Cup win, I am not too sure about which team to support in the IPL. Not wanting to do away yet with this joy of India becoming the World Champions, I might as well just end up cheering for India and enjoying all players play even the IPL.

Thanks to Dhoni and his men, who have given us Indians a big enough reason to cheer for, amidst scams and scandals all around. Thank You Indian cricket team! Thank you – MS Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, S Sreesanth, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel, Piyush Chawla and R Ashwin.Finally we can bid adieu to the video footages of the 1983 triumph

This is one of my happiest moments as an Indian. I know it is yours too.

Thus, a billion dreams have turned into reality……

–

source: news reports

Tags: 28 years, Ashish Nehra, Australia, collective team, controversial circumstances, Cricket, Delhi, Electronics & Communications Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Gautam gambhir, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, impossible target, India, IPL, islanders, Kapil Dev, leader, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, midas touch, MS, mumbai, Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium, odi, Pakistan, pedestal, poise, Sachin Tendulkar, self belief, self confidence, Singh Dhoni, skipper, Suresh Raina, team effort, the World Cup, true leader, virender sehwag, Wankhede stadium, west indies, world champions, Yusuf Pathan