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|abilliondreams | sport | 19S U N D A Y H I N D U S T A N T I M E S , N E W D E L H IA P R I L 0 3 , 2 0 1 1
Field of dreams at WankhedeON THE MONEY Criticised for being too slow on the field, Indiasaved their best for the biggest game of their lives
Atreyo Mukhopadhyay [email protected]
MUMBAI: ZaheerKhan drownedthe demons of 2003 in the
Arabian Seaon Saturday. ThatWorld Cup final against
Australiain Johannesburgwasa nightmareand despitehaving
a mixed day as a bowler onSaturday, he put the
past to rest forever.
An under-st udy of J a v a g a lSrinatheight
years ago andtheleader ofthe India
paceattacknow,Zaheerlookedto bury the past by bowlingthree maidenoversonthe trot,
which is a rare feat. The lastthree overs cost him44, buthe
would take it, for his team hadthe last laugh. It didn't matterin the end that Zaheer did nothave the best of days despite a
memorable start. Overcominga groin problem and leading afragileattackfromthe front, hisrolein thetriumph wasimpor-tant.
Zaheer's 2003campaignhadcome to a disastrous end.SouravGanguly hadelected tofieldonthatdayinthehopethathis fast bowlers would exploitthe overcast conditions.
Zaheer,however, gotit wrong
from thefirstball,beingcalledforoverstepping. He bowled10deliveriesto completetheover
asmoreno-ballsandwidesfol-lowed. The over cost him 15
runs, his first three yielded 29and he finally settled for nonefor 67 in seven overs.
Saturday started with thepromise ofa turnaround. Afterthethree maidenovers,during
which saw just a bye and leg-bye,Zaheergot UpulTharanga with one that bounced a bitmore to surprise the batsman,
who tried in vain to get his bataway at the last moment.
After an amazing first spellthat read 5-3-6-1, Zaheer gaveaway an acceptable eight runsin his next two overs and MSDhoni couldn't be faulted for
bringingon hismain bowlerforthree ofthe lastfive overs,whichincidentally, alsoconstituted the
battingPowerplay. Thatwas theperiodwhen Zaheer lostit andso did India. Starting thePowerplay at 211 for five, SriLanka rocketted to 274 withZaheerbearingthe brunt.Thelatesurrender tothe SriLanka
batsmen threatened to be cost-ly but became meaningless asthe end was exhilarating.
Little man stands tall for India
Zak shakes off shackles of the past
Captain Courageous!
Suresh Raina dives full length in pursuit of the ball in the final against Sri Lanka at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday. AFP PHOTO
Sanjjeev K Samyal [email protected]
MUMBAI: It was the same teamwhich had been embarrassedbyalmost everyone forits field-
ing during the tournament.Theyfaced the ignominy againsteven theminnowsof theWorldCup.
SkipperMS Dhonihad evenadmittedit washisteam'sgreyarea. "Fieldingis notoneof ourstrengths and gameslike thesemakeyou understand thatmore.Ifwe hadfieldedslightlybetter,
we could have won by at leastonerun.Ifit wasadifferentfield-ingside, wecouldhavewonforsure,"Dhonihadsaidduringtheleague phase.
But when the big gamescame, the Men in Blue raisedtheir intensity level to putup adisplay worthy of champions.
On Saturday, India let it slipin the final 10 overs of theinnings, butfor thebetterpartof the game they were simplyoutstanding on the field.
India's performance ingroundfielding,catching,throw-ing and scoring direct hits had
left much to be desired in the
leadup to theknock-out stage.
BESTSHOW
They put up a decent displayagainst Australia in the quar-ters and the semis against
Pakistan,but theyreservedtheirbest forthefinal.Onbiggroundsand quick outfields of the sub-continent,it wasbea bigfactorand MS Dhoni's players finallyshowed the right technique,swiftnessand speed tomakeSriLanka work hardfor each run.
Themargin forerroris verylimitedand everyrunwill countas we saw in the semifinalagainst Pakistan, who paid thepricefor theirprofligacyon thefield.
Given that the two finalistswere soevenlymatched,everyrunwasgoingto count;andtheIndian fielders did everything
to save whatever they could.Mostimpressivewasthe off-
side ring manned by YuvrajSingh, Suresh Raina and ViratKohli. Thethree wereabsolute-ly electric and gave nothingaway. The performancesof thethreewerea bigfactorin build-ing pressure on Sri Lankanopener Tillakaratane Dilshan.Hewas notallowedto targethisfavourite point and backwardpoint areas.
THEBEST
Yuvraj rolled back a few yearsand was diving, sprinting ateverything at point. Rainashowed quicksilver reflexes atcovers and Kohli was bubbling
with energy at extra cover.Equally heartening was the
performance of seniors likeSachin Tendulkar, VirenderSehwag and Zaheer Khan.Sehwag set the tempo with a
brilliantcatch atfirstslip todis-miss Upul Tharanga and thenSachin Tendulkar brought theWankhede roofdownby sprint-ingfromthe pointfenceto thirdman to dive and cut down aMahela Jayawardene latecut.
At the North Stand end,Zaheerprovided Yuvrajthe per-fect cover by doing a great jobat the third man fence.
Hisstandout momentwasinthe eighth over when he ransidewaysand divedfull stretchto stop a Dilshan cut shot.
It was not one of the moststylish stops,giventheir lackofathleticism, but the intent washeartening and the 15-20 runssavedmadethe differencein the
end.
WHENTHEBIG GAMESCAME,THE MENIN BLUERAISED THEIRINTENSITYLEVEL TOPUTUP A
DISPLAYWORTHYOFCHAMPIONS
Zaheer Khan celebrates thedismissal of ChamaraKapugedara. SANTOSH HARHARE / HT
Atreyo Mukhopadhyay [email protected]
MUMBAI: Gautam Gambhir wasnot even two years old whenKapil Devled Indiato theWorldCup in 1983 and trigger a newpassion for the game in India.
After Saturday, Gambhir willhave abiding memories of thenewtriumph,and hisname will
beembeddedin theheartsof abillionfansfor endinga 28-yearwait.
Indian cricket has experi-enced many high points in thelast few years. Climbing to theNo.1 rankingin Test cricket,the
worldT20titlein 2007andrip-pingapart Australia'sstatusasinvincibles - there were quite afew achievements to go; butthere was one big and signifi-cant void.
Following the most momen-tousday of Gambhir'seight-yearinternational career, that waithas ended. India in the WorldCupmeant heartbreaksfor theirfans since theday theylostthe1987semi-final againstEngland.
Appropriately, Gambhirchose theright placeto endthe
jinx.It was at the Wankhede
Stadium 24 years ago that a
dream was shattered, byEngland. When theWorld Cuprevisited this home venue ofSunil Gavaskar and SachinTendulkar, another little mas-ter in the making rose to theoccasion. Gambhir too is adiminutivemanwho roseto theoccasion with determination
andfocus. TheIndianchasewaslookingwobblyfollowingthe fallof Sehwag and Tendulkar andfrom the first ball he faced,Gambhir gave the impressionhe was out there to grab thischance to cement his place inone of the most glorious pagesinthe historyof Indiancricket.
Realising theneedof thehourand cutting the characteristicfrillsof hisbatting,Gambhirwasa pictureof headdownandbatstraightin thebeginning,know-ing that spending time in themiddle was the best way toreviveIndianhopes. After doingthat, he went on to play one ofthebestanchorrolesinthe his-tory of World Cup finals.
Arushof blooddeniedhimashot at bigger glory that couldhave come inthe form ofa cen-turybuthehad puthisteamoncourse before that happened.
Not the perfect end from apersonal perspective, but onethat Gambhir wouldn't mind.
Gautam Gambhir en route to a match-winning 97 against SriLanka in Mumbai on Saturday. SANTOSH HARHARE / HT PHOTO
champspeak
Winning the World Cup isthe proudest moment ofmy life. Thanks to my
teammates. I couldnt con-
trol my tears of joy...S A C H I N T E N D U L K A R
This is a special moment tome, my teammates andIndia. I want to dedicatethis award (Man-of-the-
tournament) to my guruji.Y U V R A J S I N G H
All credit goes to SachinTendulkar. We played for
him. Beating Australia andPakistan and now this, its
a dream come true.G A U T A M G A M B H I R
It means the world to me. Ihave been part of the threeWorld Cups. This cup is forthe people. Love you India!
H A R B H A J A N S I N G H
Sanjjeev K Samyal [email protected]
MUMBAI: Coming into the game,he was the only batsman from
his team who was under pres-sure. By his standards,MahendraSinghDhonihadhada poorWorldCup with thebat.Hence, when he walked out to
bat atthe most crucialstageoftheIndian innings, atthe fall of
Virat Kohli on 114 for 3 in 21.4overs, it was a very bold state-mentfromsomeonenot ingoodnick.
Dhoni's success has beenbasedon taking thebull bythehorns,andintheenditwasonlyfittingthat whenhisteammadehistory he led them from thefront.
Atthe WankhedeStadiumonSaturday, the Indian captainlivedup tohisreputationasoneofthegreatsofthegame, atrue
bigmatch player, withan inningsofgreatmaturityat thegrand-est stage. Dhoni had the depthin his batting armoury to do iteven if he failed, but he knewpersonally that it would have
takenawaysomethingfromtheepic victory.
Though there had been agood recovery by GautamGambhirand Virat Kohli, itwasanybody's game when Dhoniarrivedatthe crease.TheIndianskipper went on to dismantletheSriLankanbowlingstepbystepto takethegameawayfromMuralitharan & Co., poweringIndia to their biggest one-daytriumph in 28 years.
Itwasonlynaturalto feel the
pressure, but if he was indeedfeeling the heat, there were no
signs. He has always empha-sised the need for the captaintoshowthewaywhenthe goinggetstough and therewasnota
better examplethanhis brilliant
effort in the final.Dhoni had aggregated just
162 runs coming into the gameandtherewerea feweyebrowsraisedwhenhe walkedinaheadof the in-form Yuvraj Singh. Ina few overs, the intention wasclear.Apartfromhaving a left-rightcombination withGautamGambhir, at that momentL an ka 's a ce s pin ne rMuralitharan was operatingand, by cricketing logic, he didnot want to expose the lynch-pin of his batting, Yuvraj,straight up against the offie.
He was better equipped toplayMuralitharan,havingkept
wicketto himforthreeseasonsat Chennai Super Kings in theIndianPremier Leagueand hav-ing batted against him at thenets.
Giventhe weightof expecta-tions,no otherteammighthavefaced such pressure. All alongtheIndian captainsaid,he saw
thepressureas achanceto cre-ate an opportunity.