How the Cup was won

when sri lanka was batting we did more than a decent job for 45 over and kept them in check. But in the last 5 overs there was complete mayhem as they scored 63 runs and smashed every bowler all over the place. It was shocking to say the least. they made our attack look juvenile, even zaheer came in for a bit of stick and lost his line completely, bowling two full tosses one after the other and getting hit for a four both the times.

Anyway, the mood was quite sombre as clearly we had conceded a bit too many runs. 

Then came our innings. Malinga was all fired up and started shooting his typical toe crushes from the word go. Sehwag looked uncomfortable and poked about a bit before he was trapped plumb LBW by a relatively tame malinga special. Stunned silence. As expected Sehwag immediately asked for a review (again not even bothering to consult with sachin at the other end). The review was totally wasted as Sehwag was like dead gone. Malinga was on fire. One down with no score on the board!!!!! OMG, what was happening.... in came Gauti. mind you he hasnt been in the best on the nicks this world cup...

Sachin looked in a better nick and played a couple of delightful cover drives and managed the place the ball well. Gauti was just looking to play straight and made no efforts to score. Things slowly began to return to normal. We survived two of Malinga's overs and then he came back for what would have been the last over of his first spell.. See this one off and we all would be breathing easier. The first ball  pitched on the off and swayed a little bit more and sachin flashed at it..... a thick edge, sangakakara collected easily and we were TWO down... and malinga took off..... he ran around the field like a mad man and the other srilankans chasing him like a pack of kids let off from school early.... he thought the cup was his.... so did I.... I mean Sehwag gone, sachin gone, 31 for 2.  WTF !!!!!!!!

In walked Virat Kohli.... btw AJ finds him HOT and is nuts about him..... if looks could kill then Malinga would have been dead.... Virat, with his panju blood on fire wanted to teach malinga a lesson... straight away he swung at the next ball and met air..... there was a collective groan and malinga had this impish grin as if he was having the time of his life.... i felt sick in my stomach and wanted to throw up.... just then gauti walked up to virat and whispered a few words..... sense prevailed and we saw thru that over and thought we had seen the back of malinga for a while at least. But sangakara was upto his tricks again and gave malinga one more over !!!!! 

Things were very edgy... we were ticking along but the bowling was top class.... and it was one ball at a time.... the good part was there were two young guys at the crease and they were'nt afraid to run between the wickets and despite a tight field they managed to find the gaps and make runs... nothing sensational, nothing rash.. just a ball by ball rebuilding of the innings.... the crowd began to find its voice again and it was getting noisy. I was getting compliments for my blue hair and my drink began to taste better. The run rate was creeping up but the two were playing sensibly and rotating the strike and going after the bad balls.... and just like that hope crept back in... it still looked a steep task, but doable.

Just then it began to rain in Delhi.... big heavy drops of rain... scattered for a while and then it began to drizzle... steady and persistent... the projector guy ran to save his equipment and suddenly switched off every thing.... people were running for cover and I didnt know what to do.... manmohan was packing up but he had ordered some tandoori kababs and wanted them delivered so we waited while the others ran back home. The caterers were more interested in saving the food rather than giving manmohan his kababs.... we waited for many minutes and finally manmohan realised that his kababs werent coming and we began to walk back home.... while i was walking and getting semi soaked all I was thinking is that we need these two to hang around for another 5-10 overs. Other than Malinga, the Sri lankan attack looked tame.... even murli wasnt turning much and while there werent too many loose balls, but there werent any killers either. Virat was playing the harder of the two, going after the bowlers while gauti rotated the strike... aj was ecstatic everytime virat came on the screen and right now I was liking him a lot too... he looked like he wanted to win the cup for us.... both were doing the job for us, fingers crossed....

So I was thinking that if by the time I get to manmohan's place and these two are still batting then we are relatively safe.... if not the we are in deep shit...

I walked into the TV room and the first thing I saw was DHONI......... WTF???????? Did we loose two wickets??? what the hell is Dhoni    doing on the screen... what about Yuvi??????? I nearly had a heart attack till i saw the score... three down..... phew small mercies... dhoni obviously had promoted himself over Yuvi..... is he MAD !!!!!!!. But what the hell..... atleast Yuvi was still there   :-)

Like in the semi finals, dhoni looked edgy, his face clearly showing the tension.... gauti took an unnecessary second run and had to dive full length to get back in his crease, the throw was a mite wide else Guati would have been taking the long walk back home.... and Dhoni was livid... he stared like he wanted to kill and waved his bat menacingly at gauti..... this was not the capt COOL we all know.... and couple of overs later it was his turn, he took a single that wasnt exactly there and again the throw was wide.... he was so livid with himself that he nearly crushed his own toe with his bat as he slammed it in frustration and anger...

It was sheer jitters.... the bowling was decidedly mediocre but we were not really capitalising as much as we should have.... nonetheless the runs kept trickling in and though the runrate was creeping up it never really went out of hand... and without much ado gauti got his 50, and he looked in good nick, dhoni was calming down and both began the rebuilding act, all over again...

Sangakara tried every trick in the book, rotated the bowlers almost every other over, even brought malinga back for a couple of overs. But things were looking up for india.... Just then we got call from the lawns that it had stopped raining and the system was up and running again. So it was decided to go back to the lawns... I was very very reluctant, the last thing i wanted was to reach the lawns and realise that another wicket had fallen... i didnt want to move an inch but everybody else wanted to go. 

Back in the lawns everything was soaked and wet and COLD.... but the game was hot and happening. We reached 150... then 175.... now less than 100 runs remained and there were 105 balls to get them in... the attack was looking tame... the runs were coming and the cup looked so close that we could feel it in our hands...

Soon we were 200 and thats when we realised that gauti had slowly and quietly crept up into the late 80s ..... woah.... imagine that !!!! imaging getting his 100 and that too in a WC final.... can it ever get larger than that..... and the way these two were playing, it was a no brainer..... soon gauti was on 97..... he was looking solid and we all were set to cheer his 100... he got a loose ball, short of length, you could see his eyes light up....he swung, one mighty heave.... wanting to send into the upper stands....missed it completely and middle stump was rattled..... LAME, LAME, LAME...... as he walked back you could see him swearing.... fat lot of good that will do, u silly silly man... u had glory in your grasp and look what you did with it....

Finally in came Yuvi.... 52 runs required, 52 balls in hand.... dhoni and yuvi met in the middle and exchanged a few words.... sangakara saw a glimmer of hope and brought in three close fielders... he was going all out now.... yuvi took his guard...looking a bit tense...all fingers crossed.... will he survive the first ball.... parera knew what had happened in mohali and so he did exactly the same... a low swinging yorker.... this time yuvi got his bat in.... PHEW !!!!!, two ball later he cracked parera through midwiket for a stinging pull shot.... look who is boss now !!!!! :-)

The cat and mouse game was on..... the runs required and the balls remaining were totally hand in hand, like a honeymoon couple... 41 runs, 43 balls..... 38 runs 34 balls..... then came a massive dhoni SIX,  looked like this newly weds were heading for an early divorce !!!!!

But sangakara is a fantastic captain.... he got spinners back.... suraj randive playing his first game in the tournament.... it was a heart breaking over.... a close runout chance,,, a closer LBW review, it was all happening out there.... at the end of that over it was 30 runs and 30 balls.... goodness me.... what a game.... next over malinga was back.... he threw everything he had into that over and straight away had FOUR DOT balls..... yuvraj had no clue what to do... just hung on to his wicket for dear life.... next two ball we made 3 runs....so now it was 27 off 24...... you could have cooked rice in wankhede... it was a cauldron our there, boiling and hot...

In came Kulasekara, this was the over that had to be accounted for.... malinga had two more and we were clearly having trouble scoring off him... yuvi was facing and straight away kulasekara yorked him... yuvi got his bat in and ran for a single... the next ball Dhoni smashed him for a four!!!! the stadium erupted..... my drink, which I had not sipped for I dont know how long spilled over but who cares...!!!!! two balls later yuvi smashed him for another four..... boy these guys were having fun out in the middle..... 16 off 18... and malinga was back.... man he looked as if he wanted to eat yuvi / dhoni raw.... first ball, yorker, yuvi gets his bat in and runs for a single... dhoni at the crease.... FOUR...... FOUR..... absolute utter mayhem.... malinga cant believe it.... neither can anybody.... just MSD standing there, waving his bat and seemly saying.... you got any more of those?????  

looks like the honeymooners are headed for a divorce. 5 off 12 !!!!

Yuvi facing kulasekara, goes for a single.... 4 off 11.... one stoke away now.... dhoni at the crease.... swings his bat... connects and the ball is sailing into the stands..... SIX..... and the cup is ours....