We won!

3rd April, 2021. It's been 10 years. Exactly 10 years since I woke up with a wide smile, remembering the events of the previous night (don't be perverted la). When India's cricket World Cup winning streak began.

I was in university. I had finished my FYP the day after India defeated Pakistan in what many claimed was the final before the final. I had been looking forward to watching the real final in peace. And then my body decided to tell me, screw you for mistreating me in the last week, I'm gonna fall sick now.

So, barely able to go downstairs to even get myself lunch, I lay in bed till 5pm, which is when the match began. I was torn, should I risk getting worse by watching the match with everyone in Red Dot, or should I stay in bed and stream on my laptop. After the first wicket fell, and the links stopped streaming, I decided, forget it, I will have time to fall sick tomorrow, a WC win, I may not get to see again.

And the right decision it was.

What amazing inroads the Indian bowlers made into the Sri Lankan batting. They didn't give away too many runs, they took regular wickets. It looked all hunky-dory till the last 5 overs. It was 211/5 in 45 overs. A very chase-able total. It would end at 274/6 in 50. Not so easily chased.

Perhaps nothing told the story better than Zaheer's figures: 5-3-6-1 to 8-3-25-2 to end up at a ghastly 10-3-60-2. And I guess it says a lot when someone who is in the team in the role of a bowler is not even given his full quota of 10 overs (Sreesanth 8-0-52-0), while someone whom we still hesitate to dub as an all rounder is (Yuvraj 10-0-49-2).

When Sachin and Sehwag walked out to the centre to begin the chase, we all knew we needed one of them to fire to be able to chase this total down. Maybe a quick start from Sehwag, and then a grounded solid innings from Sachin should put them in good stead. Then 2nd ball from Malinga, plumb LBW. In true fashion, Sehwag went for the review. God only knows why, since if it had hit the bat, he of all people would have known. And it was given out. That is one thing that Sehwag can learn from Sachin. Even against Pakistan, the moment Sehwag was adjudged out, he asked for the review before even checking with his batting partner Sachin. It shows a disbelief and immaturity and a wondering out aloud, "how can I possibly be out!". It wastes a review, which in the later part of the match could change the game. Sachin, on the other hand, consulted long and hard with his partner before going for the review, and for him the decision was indeed overturned during the Pak match.

But anyway, with Sachin and Sehwag both gone within the first 7 overs, I think it was more a psychological defeat more than anything else for the whole of India. Who would get us out of this mess? Who would score enough so that we would surmount that increasingly unassailable looking target? The answer was partnerships. We often forget, in the shadow of brilliant cricketers, why the India batting line-up is so feared. Why any bastman, upto No. 7, is capable of single-handedly winning a match for us.

Gambhir and Kohli together gave the innings stability, and the more important thing they did in my opinion was to not let the asking rate creep up too high. It always stayed around 6, and we knew that if we did not lose wickets, we would eventually get there. There was hope yet.

As 21 year old Kohli departed to a blinder of a catch and bowled from Dilshan, Dhoni decided to promote himself up the order. As he himself mentioned later, "if we had not won today, there would have been many questions asked. Why Sreesanth, why not Ashwin. Why me, why not in-form Yuvraj at No. 4". Well, he proved all his critics (including me) wrong, and showed that he was not only a wicketkeeper-captain, but a batsman too. "On the big final's night, out came the calculative Dhoni, the perfect mix of caution and aggression, strong as an ox, fast as a hare, the same batsman that not long ago was quite deservingly the No. 1 in ODIs."

Sri Lankan fielders seemed to be everywhere. Every ball was hit like a boundary. Almost all were cut off. But the bastmen toiled. And we cheered. The crowd, Dhoni later said, gave the batsmen strength. "During the Gambhir-Kohli partnership, ever run was applauded as if it was a boundary."

And that 6 was such an amazing way to end it all. He stared at the ball till it cleared the ropes, while Yuvraj on the other end bellowed like a Singh. What a turn-around Yuvi has had in this WC! Man of the Tournament! Even he wouldn't have believed that was possible before the WC started.

In this match, they all batted like champions. They did not let the pressure get to them. There was no mad scramble to get runs, just patiently rotating the strike, with the occasional boundary to keep the run rate in check.

It was Team India's strategy to breeze through the Group stages and peak at the right time during the knockout games. And boy did it work. Both the QF and SF were dubbed as 2 finals before the final. To actually kick the long time winners of the WC out in the QF stage itself was monumental, though it was overshadowed by a Ind-Pak SF. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING is bigger than an Ind-Pak SF, except maybe an Ind-Pak Final. But that was not to be.

Dhoni had said after the Pakistan match that he had never seen India field so well, and never expected them to put up any better performance. Well they brought their "A Game", as they say, for the grand finale. "No matter how clumsy or unpolished their techniques, the oldest and creakiest of the Indians were diving to stop boundaries."

Perhaps the biggest lesson to be learnt from both Sachin's and Murali's relatively lackluster performances was that neither team depends solely on their "greats" to do the job for them. Neither needs a hero to save the day. What they really need is the whole team's effort.

Kohli said about Sachin "He has carried the burden of the nation for 21 years (as long as Kohli has been alive), its high time we carried him". But let us spare a thought for Murali. If Sachin is one of the best batsman ever, Murali is surely one of the best bowlers ever. He did not go out in style today. But he will forever be returned as one of the cricketing greats.

This WC, it's for Sachin. It's for Kapil Dev. It's for the unsung heroes - the support staff. It's for Team India. And it's for all the fans, in India, outside India.

We won.

Quotes:

"It was the first time in six weeks that MS Dhoni could be heard doing what can only be described as giggling."

"When Dhoni was asked how Yuvraj had been in the dressing room during the tournament, he replied with a smile: "He has been vomiting a lot," and then went on to answer the question."

"He spoke lucidly of what was going through his mind after he hit the winning runs. "Emotionally, I was confused; I wanted a wicket [stump]". But he found himself at the centre of the pitch with Yuvraj at the other end. "I thought hug-vug we will do later, first take the wicket." He then ran over to his own end to pull out the stump, after which Yuvraj jumped on him, pulling him into a bear hug. "It was an emotional moment," Dhoni said. "I was confused, I didn't know what to do at the time, how to show my emotions."

Some of the players had been struggling to sleep properly, but Upton believed - as it now seems - in something preordained. "Strangely I slept quite comfortably, because the job was done, we just needed to go and act out the script that was already written."

The nerves he felt towards the closing moments, despite himself being a mental conditioning coach, he said was a feeling like no other. "I get bloody nervous. Believe you me. It was magnificent."

Trivia:

‎1. India became the first host nation to win the tournament

2. Jayawardene became the first player to score a hundred in the final and finish on the losing side.

3. This was the highest run-chase ever achieved in a World Cup final.