All of us have been deeply immersed in Cricket world cup , and its proving interesting day by day , as the knock-outs promise a must watch game .. The league stage was just a formality for the teams , no surprises in the teams qualified from both the pools.. All the expected teams , reached the knock out stage pretty unscathed. The minnows , made some matches go down to the wire , but couldn capitalize much , as none of them made their entry in the knock-out phase of the mega-event.
Last week , it was a treat for Indian fans, it was a must-win game for both the teams, Indians facing a tough situation , in quarter finals itself, while people expected it to be the semi-final or final , as they are the top teams in the world..
The match was jus awesome , no words could explain the feel it gave, in the end the better team won , and it happened to be India.. A pretty cold revenge , to the defeat we suffered almost the same date in 2003. March 23,2003 no cricket fan , will forget , how Ponting thrashed our bowlers at the Wanderers, South Africa..Its one of the few innings in a century, where sixes where more than the boundaries.Indians in reply never looked in chase that time,and it looked almost like a one-sided game , except for some resistance provided by Sehwag..
India are ranked no1 team in Tests and 2nd in ODI , Aussies are ODI no 1 team from a long time. Indian team is looking good in paper, but not that much good in the field. With the team we have, Dhoni manages it well , and fortunately for him some of the weird'est strategy works out. India ranks no1 in tests, but does it command the fear what Aussies did ? If we are quite honest, we are sure to tell that not that much , even now in ODI we are ranking two, jus two matches away from taking the cup , we thrashed Aussies, the king of Cricket worldcup, but still we dont command the game that much as the Aussies did.
Aussies, known for playing the game hard, have a very strong attitude towards the game, and alwas have played with a enormous amount of passion towards the game, and they have that never-say-lose attitude, thats what kept them in the command, now Aussie team ,is no longer the team it was, due to people retiring from all formats of the game, and youngsters who are now in the team,couldn perform to the range of the seniors..
But even now , we cant rule out the Aussie team , they are alwas known to play the game hard, bend the rulebook to the maximum extent possible , all they want is to win the game,and they will come back hard once again. In short, they are not like the Carribeans.
Its said that All good things must end, the Aussies feel the same now.Australia 's record of unbeaten run in the worlcup , is a unparalleled record, in any game ,not alone in cricket.The journey began on May 27, 1999.
From then until the March, 19, 2011, the Australian cricket team won 34 consecutive World Cup games which included the last three Finals against Pakistan (1999), India (2003) and Sri Lanka (2007). By coincidence or fate , the unbeaten run of Aussies was ended by Pakistan , and they were sent out of the tournament by Indians.But what people generally say, History repeats itself again ,doesn count in cricket , my CPU which has some registers with some evergreen matches stored in it , tells me that logically once the first ball of the match is bowled, past records doesn count , and when players go to the middle crossing the boundaries, none of the records nor statistics matter, and its always who plays the game well that day, who has the nerves to handle whatever the game offers, is the only one that counts.. Thats what,Indians would have thought when Ashwin bowled the first over agains Aussies this time,and in the end,they came out better than the counterparts. Often people who dont follow the game,tell me that Cricket is no way a mind game, but to the contrary, its the only game which offers scope for everything ,the format of the game itself ,allows more people to taunt the other players,as not all the players of both the teams ,are at the pitch in the same time,and it does provide , enough scope for commercial activities too,by providing breaks between overs,wickets,and innigs break,unlike most of the games , which provides only half time break's. Its more than jus a physical activity game , it involves a lot of mental pressure,and ofcourse in the subcontinent , its more than game,where players are worshiped as Gods,and players are alwas idols to the citizens of the country.
Cricket is known as the gentleman's game, but on the contrary, the Aussies , who were the kings till last week , no-way looked at it in the same way. People like Gilchrist , were there in the team too , may be in my opinion , is pretty a decent player, who plays to his conscience , but still on the whole , the team is considered to be the team which just wants to win the game,and never mind the things which they do in the field. So you cant never write off the Aussie team , in any match , even if they have the weakest team , they will bounce back . Indians are considered to be talented players,the way they have their technique is different from the way Aussies have Indians are alwas considered to be gifted talented players,considering our people's craze for the game, and since the game is played in almost all streets of our country,we have a abundant talent for the game,and the gifted ones will alwas find a place in the squad when the right time comes, on the contrary, Aussies train hard , they are not considered gifted , they are considered as hard workers, they work hard and play the game hard. People like Gilchrist ,may play the game at ease,as he may be considered as gifted, but people with class ,are the ones to watch out for, for them form is just a matter of a good game, clearly Pontings century in this quarterfinal clash must have conveyed it , form is temporary,but class is permanent, is the saying which tells it all,and class not just comes to everyone out there,but for the ones who work hard and deserve it. The Aussies do that, and they alwas are known to play hard,and they will definitely come back , and the clash of the titans, will alwas be interesting as it is , India Australia match is definitely not the match for the fake-hearted and it will continue to enthrall the people alwas..
All I hope now is , India regains the cup , and commands the world of cricket , not just through BCCI , but through their trophy shelf too..
Bye till nex,
