The Moment:

Misbah-ul-Haq moves to the offside and looks to scoop the ball over short fine-leg. The camera follows the ball and the next moment is frozen in my head. Watching the ball suspended in mid air, I felt the cheeky Haq had pulled it off and then the ball dropped and there, with a look of absolute disbelief on his face was Shanthakumaran Sreesanth to put the finishing touch to what has to be arguably India’s biggest sporting achievement in the last two decades. Unbelievable stuff. Pure unbridled Joy!

It still hasn’t sunk in- the team that went into the tournament with a new captain, the team that had played the least number of games in the this format, the team that was written off before even the first ball had been bowled has done it. They didn’t do well, they didn’t just make the final, the didn’t just make a statement, they won the bloody thing!

And just look at who they beat!- the English (the men who started this format) ,the South Africans (the hosts), the bloody Aussies (world champions) and then the enemy, Pakistan. Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men deserve all the plaudits and the awards they are going to get.

Humdinger of a Final:

After winning the toss, Dhoni decided to bat and some inspired bowling by the Pakistani pacemen restricted India to just 157 of the 20 overs. The total was built around a fine 75 by Gautam Gambhir who played a very responsible knock even as wickets fell at regular intervals at the other hand. The law of averages finally caught up with Yuvraj who struggled for a bit before getting giving Umar Gul his first wicket. Gul went on to shatter Dhoni’s stumps and only some quick hitting at the end from the new kid Rohit Sharma helped India get past the 150 mark.

Brilliant Bowling from Singh and Pathan:

Watching Imran Nazir wallop Sreesanth for 20 runs in the second over, I felt that this match was done and dusted. But RP Singh had other ideas, after getting Hafeez in the first over, he cleaned Kamran Akmal up in the third over. An inspired piece of fielding from young Robin Uthappa got rid of Imran Nazir and then Irfan Pathan got into the act.

Using all his experience, Pathan managed to bowl the perfect spell, mixing his deliveries, and not giving anything away. He got rid of the captain Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi in one over and then came back to shatter Arafat’s stumps. At this stage Pakistan needed 54 from 4 overs and just when I felt that India had gotten home safe, Misbah-Ul-Haq carted Harbhajan for three sixes and then Sohail Tanveer followed it up with two more off Sreesanth.

The final over:

12 runs needed of the last over and with only Joginder Sharma and Harbhajan Singh left, Dhoni tossed the ball to Joginder. Inspired captaincy that for sure. I for one would have surely given it to the more experienced Harbhajan Singh. And does Dhoni have balls! After a shocking wide and straight six over long on, Joginder got his man!

You beauty!

Spare a thought:

For Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly. No way would the selectors have had the balls to drop the holy trinity. Instead the three opted out. More than 1000 one day internationals between them, hundreds of tests, over three decades of cricket combined and yet they miss out on the biggest achievement of their time.

Final Thoughts:

I know the 1983 world cup victory will be considered more significant than this one but I wasn’t around for that game and if you are reading this, chances are you weren’t either. Cricket is probably the only thing that truly unites this country and if you are like me you will probably remember that moment for a long time to come.