Meet the 'Invincible' India

It seemed as if the rain gods were hell bent on having an extended love affair with Birmingham, making the prospect of cricket a bleak possibility. The rainfall was recurrent, but the spirit on both sides was indefatigable. Yet, there were no signs of normalcy and brightness returning to Birmingham any time soon. Finally, when everyone started entertaining the prospects of India partaking yet another Champions Trophy, sunshine invaded the venue with unprecedented force. A 20 over game was on the cards.

India had been sent in to bat by the English skipper, but the ability of the Indians to cope with the rebellious weather was highly questionable. Even though the rains retreated for a short while, the tenacity of the weather to sustain a full T20 game was not free from questions. Rohit Sharma was the first victim of the weather-induced turmoil in the match as he missed a straight delivery from Broad and let England draw first blood on the big day. There was a long and untenable rain break, yet again, merely half an hour after the curtailed match was started. The frequent interruptions were clearly putting India at a relative disadvantage over the rivals- the momentum in the innings was becoming elusive and the run rate was woefully inadequate to satisfy T20 standards.

Shikhar Dhawan was at his usual best, though. Unperturbed by the rains and the interruptions, Dhawan skilfully carved out a substantial and useful innings of 31 before succumbing to a rising Bopara delivery in the 9th over. This dismissal of Dhawan opened the floodgates for the English bowlers who were well aware of the fact that, barring the top four, the rest of Indian batting had gone relatively untested throughout the tournament. And, they made full use of their knowledge to squeeze the life out of the Indians.

Raina, Dhoni and Kartik were sent back in no time, and India’s famed batting seemed to have caved in right on the judgement day. Then some redemption and hope arrived as Kohli and Jadeja consolidated with a quickfire 47 run stand, daring all the odds that were gradually turning against India’s chances in this big final. Ravindra Jadeja’s unputdownable authority on India’s performances in this tournament was manifested yet again in his excruciatingly vital innings of 33, which took India to 129 and gave some respectability to the scoring rate which had nosedived alarmingly following the fall of quick wickets in the middle overs.

The English innings was a sandwich- a period of bright hopes and dominance, sandwiched awkwardly between two phases of utter chaos and insanity. The first 10 overs of the English chase were appalling, to say the least- the run rate could not sneak past 5 and the wickets fell regularly. The Indian bowlers looked all set to kill the chase, before the situation got drastically altered when Bopara and Morgan took up the cudgels and led the chase with some authority.

Within a span of five overs, the game seemed to have spiraled out of India’s iron grip and it was not before Dhoni surprised everyone by bringing back a lacklustre Ishant Sharma for his last over that things changed again. Ishant was clearly out of rhythm for most of the match and in the first two balls of his last over (the 18thover of the chase) he gave away 8 generous runs to the Englishmen who were now within striking distance of a historic win.

The next two balls from Sharma actually doused all hopes for England instantaneously – first Morgan and then Bopara fell prey to inexplicably rash shots at a time when the required rate was not alarmingly high to entail such risks. Wickets kept tumbling after that and England never recovered from the slump that arrived right at the fag end of their chase. 5 runs were all that England had to score more in the end to get the trophy, and they failed to do so. And a victory margin of 5 is sure to remind us of the final of the T20 WC 2007. History repeats itself!

This was a match of ‘moments’ – moments that defined the ultimate result. There was Jonathan Trott spilling a catch off Kohli, the third umpire ruling Bell out in a controversial stumping, an out-of-sorts Ishant Sharma murdering the English chase within a span of two balls- and there were more.

Clearly India won most of those moments and outsmarted the English in end. Whatever it was, MSD can now call himself the only captain in international cricket to have won the World Cup, the T20 WC and the Champions Trophy- all during different phases of his chequered career.