Post by smartray on Apr 14, 2011 19:51:45 GMT -5
Cricket to me started with seeing those glorious cover drives and back foot punches that goes straight back past the bowler from the ‘little master’ who in my view is still a 16 year old ‘boy’ who refuses to grow and was very exciting to see him win the world cup live and very touching when his team-mates carried him around the field to justify all the adulations that this ‘boy’ gets. The tears indicate how much he was yearning for this medal and am pretty confident that there were millions of people like me wishing Sachin to win the World cup and probably the only time when it did NOT matter for his fans whether he scores a century or not …. We all just wanted him to win the world cup !!! It was like a story written just for him.
The ebb and flow of the world cup final was fantastic .. well amazing, ok …. exhilerating for a cricket fan irrespective whom you support but for an Indian fan it was more to it than just those adjectives ! For a country deprived of international sporting accomplishments apart from Hockey which is sporadic, the 1983 World cup was a turning of a new leaf in sports chapter of India ! With far more achievements in terms international sports since then but still far less given the populous, this world cup truimph is emphatic and bring a sense of positive energy given all the scandals, corruption and red-tapism that the country is immersed in.
Phew…. I really got carried away ….. Lets get to the frog errrr the real topic. Well, dont go away, it is still about the world cup. The previous night of the WC final, our group decided that we all will meet at our friends place that night after dinner, so that we all with families can watch the match which would start the next day @ 4:00AM. You guessed it – we are in CST. So the next day with a few alarms set on our iPhones and other devices we were all up for the toss and the re-toss !(India was destined to win the WC as it was rumoured that Dhoni won it the first time). As the Sri Lankan innings unfolded and started getting frustrating with each passing run and well placed and paced innings of Jayawardane, my friend said,”Man the SLankans are boiling the frog”. With a grin on his face, he said “that it is an old story where in a frog jumps into a pan of water that is been kept for boiling. Initially the frog is so happy bcos the water is warm and the pan is cozy. It starts swimming more and more feeling comfy and starts getting tired more and more. As the water becomes really hot, the frog does not have enough energy even to jump out of the pan eventually dies !”. So he likened Indian Team to the frog. SL who were playing in 1s and 2s, started getting 4s and 6ers. Our estimated target of less than 250 was revised to be 270, when fianlly they ended up at 274.
We devised our strategies on who should bat a long innings and how India should approach but what unfolded in the first 15 minutes was telling ! India started batting, a second ball shocker was like pressing the mute button on your blaring home theater … and next came the loudest noise - a deafning silence that swept across not only in Mumbai but reverberated across all the Indian fans when the ‘boy’ was caught behind. I said to myself that I do not have the patience and energy to watch India go down like the 2003 debacle and my friend reminded look “they have boiled the frog right!” As a second round of fine ginger chai came in, India had started taking singles and doubles and astonishingly, the run rate was always kept below six. That itself was a enormous task given that Shewag and Tendulkar are gone ! But my friend said, India can win this game if they in turn start “boiling the frog”.
It was like magic that Kohli and Gambhir who were batting heard his comment and started rotating strike and within no time the partnership swell to 80 odd runs ! Another stunning catch from SL, the partnership was broken. Then walked out Dhoni – a captain who was under pressure for making some selection faux-pas but also for lack of his form in the tournament. But boy, what an innings he played. Like my friend said, he and Gambhir just kept rotating the strike and never let the required run rate go past 6 anytime. They indeed kept ‘boiling the frog’ …. With all this we guys and gals were never allowed to move from there place. Me and my other friend kept pacing up and down the living room. Guys were allowed to take bathroom breaks only between the overs. Kids were ransacking the upper level of the house like Tuglaq and they emptied one whole box of ritz but nobody was bothered except for a check once in a while to ensure they have not turned rowdies.
As India closed in on the target of 275, it seemed we could not take the ‘frog’ out of our discussion. My friend commented, it is right time for India to start boiling it on high heat .. Then the target was 30 of 30 balls. Tho’ Gambhir had departed for a rash shot, the ‘frog’ had swum enough that it had just one last ounce of energy to jump out of the water and Malinga was called back. His first over gave away only 3 runs but was let off by the other bowler but then the next over by Malinga costed them dearly and the frog had given up and India were cantering home to lift the coveted prize after 28 years.
Just for the records, India have won both formats of ODIs which no other team can boast off – 60 over and 50 over format. They are #1 ranked in both ODI and Test. They also have lifted the T20 world cup. The scenes of jubiliation when Dhoni hit the winning six where I was watching, matched many other places in the world where Indian fans were waiting for this moment to happen. A sense of accomplishment was felt and relief that the ‘boy’ of our era had fianlly lifted the world cup. Enjoy the celebrations in the video attached and Congratulations Team India! Enjoy the Victory Celebrations !!
Thanks to the hosts, It was super fun watching the finals together and we all, I am sure, will cherish this for a long time to come and the take away from this – never be that frog.
-SR
The ebb and flow of the world cup final was fantastic .. well amazing, ok …. exhilerating for a cricket fan irrespective whom you support but for an Indian fan it was more to it than just those adjectives ! For a country deprived of international sporting accomplishments apart from Hockey which is sporadic, the 1983 World cup was a turning of a new leaf in sports chapter of India ! With far more achievements in terms international sports since then but still far less given the populous, this world cup truimph is emphatic and bring a sense of positive energy given all the scandals, corruption and red-tapism that the country is immersed in.
Phew…. I really got carried away ….. Lets get to the frog errrr the real topic. Well, dont go away, it is still about the world cup. The previous night of the WC final, our group decided that we all will meet at our friends place that night after dinner, so that we all with families can watch the match which would start the next day @ 4:00AM. You guessed it – we are in CST. So the next day with a few alarms set on our iPhones and other devices we were all up for the toss and the re-toss !(India was destined to win the WC as it was rumoured that Dhoni won it the first time). As the Sri Lankan innings unfolded and started getting frustrating with each passing run and well placed and paced innings of Jayawardane, my friend said,”Man the SLankans are boiling the frog”. With a grin on his face, he said “that it is an old story where in a frog jumps into a pan of water that is been kept for boiling. Initially the frog is so happy bcos the water is warm and the pan is cozy. It starts swimming more and more feeling comfy and starts getting tired more and more. As the water becomes really hot, the frog does not have enough energy even to jump out of the pan eventually dies !”. So he likened Indian Team to the frog. SL who were playing in 1s and 2s, started getting 4s and 6ers. Our estimated target of less than 250 was revised to be 270, when fianlly they ended up at 274.
We devised our strategies on who should bat a long innings and how India should approach but what unfolded in the first 15 minutes was telling ! India started batting, a second ball shocker was like pressing the mute button on your blaring home theater … and next came the loudest noise - a deafning silence that swept across not only in Mumbai but reverberated across all the Indian fans when the ‘boy’ was caught behind. I said to myself that I do not have the patience and energy to watch India go down like the 2003 debacle and my friend reminded look “they have boiled the frog right!” As a second round of fine ginger chai came in, India had started taking singles and doubles and astonishingly, the run rate was always kept below six. That itself was a enormous task given that Shewag and Tendulkar are gone ! But my friend said, India can win this game if they in turn start “boiling the frog”.
It was like magic that Kohli and Gambhir who were batting heard his comment and started rotating strike and within no time the partnership swell to 80 odd runs ! Another stunning catch from SL, the partnership was broken. Then walked out Dhoni – a captain who was under pressure for making some selection faux-pas but also for lack of his form in the tournament. But boy, what an innings he played. Like my friend said, he and Gambhir just kept rotating the strike and never let the required run rate go past 6 anytime. They indeed kept ‘boiling the frog’ …. With all this we guys and gals were never allowed to move from there place. Me and my other friend kept pacing up and down the living room. Guys were allowed to take bathroom breaks only between the overs. Kids were ransacking the upper level of the house like Tuglaq and they emptied one whole box of ritz but nobody was bothered except for a check once in a while to ensure they have not turned rowdies.
As India closed in on the target of 275, it seemed we could not take the ‘frog’ out of our discussion. My friend commented, it is right time for India to start boiling it on high heat .. Then the target was 30 of 30 balls. Tho’ Gambhir had departed for a rash shot, the ‘frog’ had swum enough that it had just one last ounce of energy to jump out of the water and Malinga was called back. His first over gave away only 3 runs but was let off by the other bowler but then the next over by Malinga costed them dearly and the frog had given up and India were cantering home to lift the coveted prize after 28 years.
Just for the records, India have won both formats of ODIs which no other team can boast off – 60 over and 50 over format. They are #1 ranked in both ODI and Test. They also have lifted the T20 world cup. The scenes of jubiliation when Dhoni hit the winning six where I was watching, matched many other places in the world where Indian fans were waiting for this moment to happen. A sense of accomplishment was felt and relief that the ‘boy’ of our era had fianlly lifted the world cup. Enjoy the celebrations in the video attached and Congratulations Team India! Enjoy the Victory Celebrations !!
Thanks to the hosts, It was super fun watching the finals together and we all, I am sure, will cherish this for a long time to come and the take away from this – never be that frog.
-SR
