India is the T20 cricket champions .They won the first T20 world cup held in south africa...
Who could ever have thought of an Indo-Pak final in the inaugural twenty20 world cup cricket championship even as late as, say, a week before the D-date? Considering their form few would have given them a chance beyond the super 8 stage.
Before the tournament actually began, neither the two cricketing giants from the Indian sub-continent was in the best of form or in very high spirit. Both had an early and ignominious exit from the ODI world cup championship played earlier this year.
The 1983 champions India and the 1992 champions Pakistan were bitten hollow by the minnows like Bangladesh and Ireland respectively in the group matches to hasten the former world champions’ exit from the last world cup. These shocks were not forgotten as yet when just a few days before the T20 world cup actually took off, Pakistan had to go though the traumatic experience of losing the services of there ace pace bowler Shoaib Akthar under very demoralizing and unsavoury circumstances when the Rawalpindi express was found guilty of beating up the fellow fast bowler Md.
Asif with a cricket bat. Pakistan cricket board took a prompt and stern action and called Shoaib back from south Africa. Everyone thought that the morale and spirit of the Pakistani team must have touched the rock bottom from which it was near impossible to recover and perform well in the T20 world cup. While most people thought that Pakistan was bound for a disastrous world cup, the team from the subcontinent had other ideas.
The Pakistanis surprised one and all by their perseverance and resilience in the matches, which were to follow.After an initial hiccup against the Dhoni brigade in the preliminary group league engagement and losing the match via “bowl out” the novel rule of twenty20 cricket to get a clear cut “win and loss result” when a match ends in tie, Shoaib Malik’s team was in the rise. The team never looked back till they reached the final.
On the way to final the Pakistani demolished the myth that they were a demoralized lot by brushing aside all the challenges which came in the form of Sri Lanka [by 33 runs], Australia [by 6 wickets], Bangladesh [by 4 wickets] and new Zealand [by 6 wickets].India, on the other hand, was reeling under the shock of missing the services of the mighty triumvirate of Sachin, Saurav and Dravid – who has already voluntarily withdrawn from the tournament before the team for the T20 world cup was actually picked up. The selector put up the new look team under a new but courageous captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, world’s first full time wicket keeper captain for an entire major tournament.
In additional to some previous regulars like Yuvraj Singh, Dhoni, Dinesh Kartik and Ajit Agarkar, the team was composed of some call-backs like Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag and a host of rookies or those who had not yet consolidated their position in the team. It was feared that the new team along with the newly appointed captain might crack under the tremendous pressure of matches against teams like Pakistan and Australia. But thankfully nothing of that sort happened.
The young bunch courageously stood up to the greatest of challenges and fought magnificently against the mighty opponents to emerge ultimate winners, while the rest of the world simply watched this Indian team’s phoenix – like rise from the ashes!On the way to the final, India after that “famous” “bowl out” victory against Pakistan were temporarily shocked by a 10 run defeat against new Zealand in the super 8 round.
This was a match, which India lost due to their own mistakes. But the redeeming feature of this Dhoni brigade was that the boys were quick learners. They picked up the threads from the next match against England and never looked back. From there on every match was a do or die engagement for India and imagine – the opponents were South Africa, Australia and finally Pakistan! Under the circumstances even a place in the semi finals seemed to be a far cry as India had to beat England and South Africa in a trot before they could reach that place.
To the immense satisfaction of millions, India did reach the semi finals with comfortable victories over England [by 18 runs] and the hosts’ South Africa [by 37 runs].Three times world champions Australia were the next in the line. Odds were heavily stacked against India in this semi-final and very few would have dared to give India a chance. But Dhoni’s boys were charged up. They played some magnificent cricket to end the onslaught of the mighty Aussies by 15 runs. Then came the dream finals – India versus Pakistan – the mother of all sports competition! And what a nerve-racking final it was! The mega – fight was much more the sweeter because it was India who ultimately emerged the winners by 5 runs.
An unbelievable history was written and India was at the center of it. The hundreds of millions of Indian fans the world over and entire India right from the president of the nation to the daily wage earners on the street – everyone was soaked in glory and mirth.Everyone was remembering the glory and the pleasant surprise that “Kapil’s devils” brought with them from England 24 years ago by winning the prudential world cup and a natural comparison is being made between the two victories and the two forms. This seems to be unfair though. Te only similarities between the two are that both the teams are world champions’ and that both the teams were under dogs when the respective tournaments started. Nothing beyond that.
That was a different age and different form of cricket too – one-day internationals of 60 over a side matches. Whereas this one is a twenty20 over affair. Performance pressures and psychological preparations of players – nothing between these two types of cricket can be compared.One thing is for sure that Dhoni and his men, by winning the coveted trophy, have pushed India to a most unenvious position of maintaining the prestige of a “world champion” in the very challenging one dayers against Australia and Pakistan that are to follow very shortly.
