All demons were killed

2nd April 2011, the day every Indian woke up with an apprehension. It can't be that good. We already had two good to believe matches and it's too much to ask to repeat the same performance against our old nemesis, the Lankans. On the paper, they stood no chance, however, this advantage has always been there and it gave no comfort to our restless souls that we have lost that advantage every time on the field.
People started to gather, discussions started, conference rooms turned into war rooms. Avid readers of the game started bringing out minute details of the game. Players, their weaknesses, their omens, good luck charms, facts, myths and what not? Nothing was left untouched by the cricket fever.
I had my own demons to take care of as the history that we share with lankans goes back to the days of Azharuddin's captaincy and prime-form Sachin. 1996 World Cup had Sachin written all over it. However, a few dark horses, Pardon me for the language, but at least a dozen of people will vouch that I can never be a racist. So, a few dark horses from the island nation took that cup away from the curly haired maestro.  A billion hearts were broken on that fateful day when Eden Garden lush green beauty failed to alleviate the pain. From there on,  any win over SriLanka would  be a consolation to the Indian fans. The gutsy islanders didn't stopped there. They came to the party in 2007 when the economic heavyweight of the cricketing world failed to qualify for the second round. The ball that left Dilhara Fernando's hand didn't just knocked off little champs off stump, it shattered the decade old faith that Indians had in Sachin.
Quite contrary to the saying which states that it's very hard to regain the trust once broken. Sachin resurrected himself from the ashes and turned himself into a magician. Since then Seamers, Swingers, Spinners, Slingers and Chuckers, all failed to make any lasting impression on his willow. This time around, Team India was looking forward to a performance that will do justice to their reputation. They started the tournament with the tag of favorites, then they were criticized heavily for their lethargic ground fielding and poor tactics. Their bowlers were rated so lowly that even the underdogs would have mocked at them.
However, destiny had something special planned for us, 2nd April's scorching sun burnt all the ifs and buts that were floating around and shone so brightly that even an iota of darkness was not left in the Indian hearts. On this very day, 11 incarnations of Hanumans battled hard against their Zillenium old foes and banished all the pain and excuses to triumph against all the odds. On 2nd April 2011, A  Ticket Collector who used to stand on the khargpur's mile long platform was destined to make history, an abusive yet benevolent villager from Ikhar was destined to make history,  a jat from the harayana was destined to make history and a curly haired boy with dreamy eyes from mumbai was destined to make history and they certainly made history and Boy in what a grand style!!

And they kept coming.. Ind Vs Australia (Quaterfinal)

This one is coming up quite late and I really have no specific reason for this delay other than the fact that past couple of weeks were quite eventful and didn't gave my grey cells any chance to put on the thinking cap.
24th March 2011, the day land of snake charmers matched up with Ozlanders, eyeball to eyeball, shoulder to shoulder.
This new group of Aussies were no match  to their predecessors, they didn't had the trademark compactness of Gilly or the giant stride of Hayden, they didn't even had pigeon's disciplined yet teasing line. They had punter's flamboyance but he too looked like flogging a gigantic yet well-past-prime reputation on his aging shoulders. Well, it's not everybody's cup of tea to become one of the leading run scorers while age is not on your side.The intensity of the game was roused by the fact that this is India's best chance to win THE CUP that matters. Indian fielders were sprinting over the filed like pumas, quite a rare sight for the Indian fans.
Watson and Haddin had given Australia an uncharacteristic yet solid start. They played very sensibly and waited for the bad balls. India was fortunate to see the back of them as they failed to covert the start into big scores. On the other hand, Ponting brought into play, his years of wisdom and refused to give away anything to the opposition. In recent years, India Vs Australia encounters have gained the reputation of humdinger as each side refuse to give an inch to the other.  In the end, Ponting played the anchor's role superbly and gave a solid chance to the ozlanders. Yuvi and Zaheer once again played the main part and Ashwin too impressed everyone.
The innings break sparked debates on whether India let the Aussies score too many singles and whether this total is 20 runs more than the at par score. Indian innings didn't start in the best possible way. Sehwag departed early. Every other batsmen played his part to perfection and the late hiccups after Dhoni's yet another failed shot didn't gave any jitters to the ice-cool belly of yuvi and Raina.  These days, Indian fans can easily see their team has given away the flashy shots and the urge to dominate the game but a sense of calm has descended over them and they go about their job with a very disciplined approach.. Gone are the days when Ganguly used to step out and loft the ball in the stands or Dhoni imitating the blades of a chopper and killing the opposition's morale. These days, they believe in finishing the job in a disciplined and professional manner and they don't believe in playing to the crowds. Well, fans won't mid this shift as long as they keep bringing glory.

The day, two countries stood still

30th March 2011, the day will go down in the history books as the day when two countries were brought to a grinding halt by  the game of cricket.

Given the fact that all the omens and past records were pointing to a favorable result, the coward fan in me kept denying all the positivity in the air. Someone tried to convince me that we share a 4-0 record against them, I replied him saying that the law of averages will definitely make us lose today. Some one said Sachin will definitely win this one for us. I almost shouted back at him saying; please keep Sachin out of this. There is nothing left there for him to give it to us. He has virtually given everything to us. I don’t care if we lose today but please keep my GOD out of it. In the heart of the hearts, I too wanted the cup for Sachin but I didn’t want to be drowned in the ocean of despair in case our team bows out and Sachin once again goes empty handed.

It was my way of building a defense mechanism against the possible situation of India bowing out of this semi-final and people starts blaming Sachin and I am sure I was not alone out there. Many of the avid readers of the game were doing something similar. Somewhere in their heart, they wanted to stand on their roof tops and scream at the alto of their voice that this world cup is ours, this world cup belongs to Sachin. Give it to us so that we may live the rest of our lives in peace or for that matter of fact, die in peace as there will no grudge left.

We have been there before, we have shouted for our team, our Sachin in the past. However, every time, some one would play a spoil sport and the nation of a billion people would be left with dashed hopes and bruised egos. Some time it would either the ruthless hitting of Jaisurya and Kalu or the daftness of Arvind De Silva. At others, it would be Punter’s audacity and the fire power of Pigeon. Just when the things would start to look rosy, Mr nobody from nowhere would come and take the game away from us. Hence, this time around, even the Midas touch of MSD was not soothing the ever-rising pulse rate of the Indian fans.

One may find it ridiculous but the fan in me started to curse economist turned puppet Mr Manmohan Singh for turning this game into a high voltage drama. What if Afridi goes boom boom either with the bat or the ball? The chances of him being the thorn in the flesh of the GOD are very high.

Being a Wednesday and an official working day were not helping the cause either. Though, there was nothing I could have done being in the office, I decided to watch the game in the company of my friends. I reached the decided venue (my friend’s place) just in time for the first delivery to be bowled. Sehwag set the tempo by hitting five 4s in Gul’s over. The Najafgarh Nawab once again showed, why he is one of the most feared batsman in today’s era. He has that power of taking the game away in 10 overs. Today, he just needed one. After that Pakistanis kept coming at the Indians but the initial flurry of 4s was too much to erase so quickly from their memories. It also gave an ample amount of time to India to build the innings. The word that could describe India’s performance aptly is Clinical, there were flashes of brilliance every now and then but they were thoroughly professional in their approach and avoided doing the things that gives the slightest of the chance to their brothers from the other side of the fence. Dropped Catches while Sachin was batting was truly a divine intervention and the men, who were bleeding green, could do nothing about it.

I would like to share two instances that describe the intensity with which this game was followed by the viewers. I had to move away from the TV set for a brief period of 20 minutes. I had to collect some stuff from a near by place. I unwillingly started my bike and I zipped of at a high speed.

Just when I was passing through the near by dominoes pizza, I saw Yuvi taking a wicket, I turned the ignition off and raised my arms. This impromptu act was done in the mid of the road and my dearest of all, Sapna joined me in my jig. A few passers by smiled and then they too started yelling Sachin Sachin. Though, Sachin had played no part in taking that wicket, they remained happily oblivious to this fact. Another instance was when I reached back at our joint; I had to wait for the lift for 5 minutes. These 5 minutes were the most restless 5 minutes of my life. In the end, I ended up doing countless huddles with best buddies and we were jumping up and down like teens. In that sense were teens only, which were deprived by such joy in their early age.  This game gave us good omens that we are peaking at the right time but as I said earlier, we had to be cautious of end moment spoilers and we share a pretty nasty history with the Lankans.