India vs Pakistan It Is
India through to the finals of the inaugural Twenty20 cricket world cup, being held in South Africa.
Yuvraj Singh once again blasting the aussie bowlers out of the park, was instrumental in the win.
View a video of the highlights here
Some of the aspects that stuck out to us:
1. Given the number of Indian flags fluttering in the ground, you would have thought this was happening in Mohali (Chandigarh).
2. Gilchrist in the post match chat with Ravi Shastri, sounded funny to us. He sounded like a sheepish student complaining about not being the school topper because he did not sleep well the night before the exam. What’s so bad about accepting that you lost to a better team? Are Indians the only humble people around?
Sample the excuses “We came off a break, while India had been playing a lot recently”. “We were in control but played a few bad shots because of which we lost“. And oh yes…”The indians were also good”. Damn well, they were…and the rare occasion that they were, you better give them credit.
3. Yuvraj hit 5 sixes - one of them apparently 119m. Now thats a long long distance we think. And boy, was he charged up…
4. Post match, there were some happy scenes around the Indian dressing room. Zaheer khan throwing a bucket of water from the second level onto an unsuspecting Yuvi coming in reminded us of holi pranks back in the days!
5. The cynics that we are, we cant help thinking of a conspiracy angle to the way things have turned out. India and Pakistan, both teams with the biggest cricket support base in the world, both humiliated horribly in the ODI world cup, itching to redeem themselves, then that very unconvincing bowlout episode in their earlier meeting here, now face off in the final.
Its a world cup, their cricket rivalry is legendary, and this is possibly the most exciting pair for the final of a world cup. It all seems like somebody wrote a comeback script for them.
Anyways…we are not complaining. We enjoyed the fireworks. And the final should be very interesting.
So who’s it going to be ? Stay tuned. The final is on monday. 1600GMT (12PM EST)
One great thing about the T20 thing is you feel like watching even those matches where your favorite teams are not playing. I think ODIs are on their way out, sooner rather than later!
The India VS Australia match was a total delight. Watching Yuvi and Uthappa was joyful.I somehow survived a minor stroke towards the end of the nail biter. I dread to think about the next one on Monday.
I just hope that these players are retained in the team after going back. They have a lot of passion which is really lacking in most of the senior players. But Sreesanth should bring it down a notch. Sometimes his rage clouds his judgment and we do need cool heads under pressure.
About the Indian flags fluttering away, i heard an English commentator say that after retirement he would prefer to sell Indian flags outside the cricket stadiums, that would take care of his livelihood <:)
Wisden Cricket
Sometimes, you will get overcome by the mountainous quantity of cricket sources at hand.
I loved Yuvi’s performance a lot. It is very enjoyable watching all happy faces on screen and also off screen after the win.