Twenty20 World Cup Final-India Vs Pakistan

See Saw Clashes.... Mother of all battles, was what it was branded, and the match for sure, did give a heart patient, a serious run for his life. The way the match kept on swinging fortunes, only showed the resilient spirit both the teams. The last shot lasted more than the 6 seconds..it lasted a million seconds. The way Misbah advertised that he was going to play that hoick to fine leg, even as Joginder came into bowl, made my heart skip a beat.Then when Misbah, connected, that sublimal fear stretched all through my back, an unpleasant feeling, not wanting to listen to the commentator, believing that it was going into the bull ring. My friend who was online, not accesible to TV, must have shreaked when I typed 6... but much to my shock..Misbah had not connected and Shastri's scream " its in the air" which would be the ideal prelude to either a 6 or a wicket, confused me as my eyes, was in its last stages of closing, a sense of frustration,mouth slipping in bouts of saliva, prefering to skip a beat and THEN.......

My Grandmother jumps in joy with her hands up!.... AHOY! what do we have here!!! India won..

I immidealy jump back to my laptop and type " India won" and the message transcends through continents to a probable victory shout on the other side of the Google Talk messenger. OOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHH 2 close India Pak matches and Sreesanth keeps his cool in both the moments in Durban and Johannesburg,closing the lid on the match.


Those 6 seconds, I went through a multitude of emotions and it would probably last a life time. India has won a world cup, an against whom!!! the dream match against pakistan...and Pak would have to stare hard at the scar of not winning against India in World Cups.

My views:

Misbah deserved the player of the series, 4 awesome innings, 2 magical but greek hero type loss, and 2 victorious innings under pressure to win. Afridi was out of form, but the numbers helped him win the Player of the series award.

Dhoni looked in command and had nerves of steel throughout the tourney. Good changes and great work from the support staff of Venky Prasad,Lalchand Rajput and Robin Singh. I specially liked the way Dhoni supported Sreesanth after the first over of 21 runs( A Shoaib Akthar-esque over... for retaliation) and the way Jogi was persisted against Australia and Pakistan.

The youngsters came to the fore, and I keep wondering if Rohit Sharma was caught on the Long on boundary, would the match have come so close? I say that because Abdul Hafeez, not only dropped it, but also let it for a 6, which would have otherwise been a boundary.

If Misbah had connected that fatal last ball, Joginder singh would have become the tainted piece of history(that Chetan Sharma has now become). His career would have ended as soon as it started(My friend Arun, agrees with me on this).

The turning point? Imran Nazir's wicket... He was looking great guns and at no point did we look like getting him out. His wicket brought India back into the game. The second turning point was Sohail Tanvir's wicket and of course the last wicket of Haq, which he could have well waited and got the runs.

Click here to watch the Innings brief highlights...

1) Pakistan Wickets
2) Gautam Gambhir's Innings
3) Sixes of the final

Video Courtesy! ( Flicked from ESPN)