Its a dream for any aspiring cricketer to play for Team India and Its a dream for every Team India player to play in World Cup and no dream is bigger than defeating arch rivals Australia and Pakistan in knock out stages of the World Cup. This Indian team has done it all. When a nation grows then its friends and rivals both change. And because of this reason only that India-Australia match heat is comparable to India-Pakistan match heat. For an young aspiring Indian, victory over Australia is more significant than victory over Pakistan but loss to Pakistan is comparable to a crime that can not be washed even if you take 100 dips in holy Ganges. Its party emotional and partly because of a the confidence of growing middle class of India. India loves to compete and defeat Australia on the one hand while it loves to always defeat Pakistan on other hand. The last 10 years has made this huge change in the mindset of Indians and this reflects in the Buddha like posture of Dhoni. The bunch of jokers have become world beaters and as they say Rome was not built in a day, the same is true for team India. Sachin has remained a great agent of this transformation and all the players starting from Ganguly, Dravid, Prasad, Kumble, Srinath, Laxman etc have played their parts. Dhoni and others are just culmination of the process started by Sachin decades back. Its a fitting tribute to Sachin and we all owe it to Sachin.
There are two things that can unite this nation. War is one and Sachin is second. It has been sheer pleasure to experience Indian wins against Pakistan in 1992, 1996, 1999, 2003 and yesterday. 1992 World Cup was a gone case for India still we defeated Pakistan despite escapades from Miandad. 1996 win was a sweet one as it propelled us to Semi Final against Sri Lanka and we failed miserably in that Semi. 1999 World Cup match against Pakistan was similar to 1992. 2003 World Cup match was the grandest match ever played by India against Pakistan till then. It was the match that added another story in the Legend of Sachin. Akhtar was silenced forever. Anwar and Akaram were retired forever. Yesterday match was very much
one sided and Pakistan managed to fight only till 35 overs of Pakistan inning. I was expecting that the match would go till 49th or final over but 260 was too much for Pakistanis. Pakistan team also deserves some claps as no body gave them any chance before this world Cup yet they managed to destroy Australia, Sri Lanka and West Indies. Afridi looks like a man on mission but you can not win a cricket epic if your team does not perform. Yunis Khan, Razzak looked miserable yesterday and Mohammad Hafiz shot was suicidal.
Sri Lanka is more formidable foe than Pakistan and they have enviable top and middle order batsmen, and bowlers. Greatest bowler Muralidharan will play his last match so this final is destined to become a clash of legends, Sachin on one hand and Murali on other. May the best team wins. Amen.
P.S. Somethings never change. Sun rises in east, India defeats Pakistan in world Cup, capital of Singapore is Singapore etc etc..
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