Sweet Revenge!

Almost exactly 8 years ago, on 23rd March, a young Indian fan borrowed 3 chunnis from his sister to stitch together an Indian flag. It was India vs Australia in the finals of the 2003 WC, and India had played brilliantly to beat the best teams in the competition, and deservedly eyed the trophy. A victory rally was planned, and he wanted to be prepared! But before the last stitches were through, Australia had batted India out of the game with a 350 odd score.

Yesterday, 8 years later, along with a billion other Indians, he had his revenge!

Australia won the toss and elected to bat on a difficult pitch at the Motera in Ahmedabad. Ponting probably wanted the Indians to flash back to 2003, and bat them out of the game. However, the much-maligned Indian bowlers were raring to go. Led by the indomitable Dhoni, they kept at the Aussies, striking at regular intervals, never allowing them to settle down. Dhoni opened the bowling with his secret card Ashwin, who struck in the 10th over, Yuvi got two critical wickets, and Zaheer's brilliance with the ball meant that Ponting's lucky 100 (he was given not out when LBW to Harbhajan, and India had already exhausted its quota of referrals) just about managed to take the Aussie score to a respectable 260. India fielded brilliantly too, saving at least another 15 runs with diving efforts.

When the men in blue took the field, Indians wanted just two things - Sachin's 100th 100 and an Indian win. Sachin and Sehwag opened with a flourish, and Sachin soon raced to a brilliant 50 after Sehwag's early dismissal, in the company of Gambhir. In the process, he also completed 18000 ODI runs. But the stadium was stunned into silence when he was given out to a possible backfoot no-ball. With a not-so-threatening RR, Indians never lost sight of the target. But after a disastrous set of mix ups in the middle with Yuvi, Gambhi ran himself out. With Virat falling to a rank bad shot, and Dhoni similarly catching himself out, India suddenly seemed vulnerable for the first time in the game. With 70 odd runs to go, and 5 down, with the last recognized pair of Yuvi and the out of form Raina in the middle, would the team falter like they did in the SA encounter? The pitch was also expected to deteriorate and turn, but Ponting had packed his side with his "fearsome" pace bowler quartet. But Yuvi and Raina were up to the task, first striking Lee for 14 in the 40th over, followed by Tait's 13 run over. Suddenly the pressure was off. Raina even hit Lee for a huge six, the first and only of the innings. When Lee got hit with the ball at the boundary during a diving attempt, and had to walk off the field bleeding under his eye, the signs for Australia had turned very ominous. There was no stopping the men in blue, and it was only fitting that the winning boundary came off the blade of the Prince of Indian cricket off a Lee delivery. With his 4th fifty and 4th consecutive man of the match award, Yuvi had silenced all his critics with a performance when it mattered the most.

With Chak De India blasting from his Endeavour's speakers, the young man and his daughter took off on a vistory rally to celebrate what had been a most memorable victory! FC road was jam-packed with revellers, clambering on buses with huge waving tricolors, and celebrating like there was no tomorrow. India had proved, once again, why we are #1 in the world, and for a billion Indians, here was yet another reason to celebrate!

Next stop, Mohali, for the war with Pakistan. As Dhoni said, for most Indians, this is the match that matters, and if we win this, the WC will no longer matter!