The day we were crowned Cricket World Champions
Remember, remember, the 2nd of April, the World Cup victory and plot,
I know of no reason why the World Cup victory should ever be forgot.
With exactly two weeks left for the start of the tournament, four players went to BCCI to discuss their IPL pay structure. Eleven days before the tournament, Praveen Kumar was injured and a replacement was named. The official World Cup song blurted out of every speaker. Wherever you went, the sponsors were already there with their giant hoardings, print, TV or online ads. Giant posters of painted and bare-chested cricketers stared down at you. There were all kinds of competitions with free passes or presence at the toss/prize distribution up for grabs. Everyone had an opinion on the team selection. There were articles on why <insert any of the 14 teams here> would definitely win/surely lose. There were talks about DRS (or UDRS, as it was called back then). The limited tickets that were open for the public were selling at a premium. Yagnas were held in all cities for Team India’s success. Long forgotten ex-players got themselves newspaper columns and TV slots. Players trained tough; players talked and tweeted tougher.
However, all of that was relegated to the backseat, to make way for cricket, once Sehwag started proceedings by hitting the first ball of the ICC World Cup 2011 for a four on the 19th of February, 2011. Much drama ensued for the next month – some high quality cricket, records broken, the obligatory minnow upsetting a giant, a tied match, experiments with batting and bowling line-ups, trying out plan Bs and plan Cs; and suddenly we were in the knock out stages of the tournament – no surprises about the eight teams which had made it.
Pakistan brutally dismantled West Indies, New Zealand got South Africa to choke, Sri Lanka spun a web around England, and India survived the Australian scare. India handed the Aussies their first World Cup knock-out match defeat since that day in Lahore in 1996. Ahh, that ‘roar’ by Yuvraj after the winning runs! Questions were being raised on his very selection in the squad, there were reports of him nearly quitting his career (much later he would be fighting a battle against cancer), but at that moment he was just thrilled, and pumped – pumped at what he had already done in the tournament, and pumped about what lay ahead.
Arch-rivals Pakistan and Mohali awaited the Indian team in the semis. Sehwag brought back memories of the Centurion 2003 assault as he destroyed Umar Gul and the Pakistani bowlers even before Manmohan Singh could extend a hand of friendship to his counterpart watching from the stands. Sehwag fell; catches from Sachin’s blade fell; more wickets fell, before India somehow managed to score 260. During Pakistan’s chase, the bowlers bowled a consistent line outside off. Kohli, Yuvraj and Raina manned the inner circle on the off side and stopped everything that came their way. Later, even Ashish Nehra put in a dive! (which was to actually cost him a place in the XI in the finals). Goosebumps rose, pressure mounted, the run-rate increased, wickets fell, more pressure, Misbah-ul-Haq happened, more pressure, more wickets and more goosebumps. The Pakistanis never really recovered and were sent packing on their flight back home. The Indian team made their way to Mumbai, where Sri Lanka awaited them after having got the better of New Zealand in their semi-final match.
April 2, 2011 arrived. Our Facebook walls were bleeding blue. Wankhede occupied the centre of the universe. One toss was not going to be sufficient that day as Sangakkara shrewdly won the favour of the coin the second time around and chose to bat. They made as many as four changes into their line-up from their semi-final team. India boasted of a more settled side, and made a solitary change to rope in Sreesanth in place of the injured Nehra. Simon Taufel finally got a chance to officiate in a World Cup final match.
Zaheer ensured there was not going to be a repeat of Jo’burg 2003 as he bowled a dream first spell of 5-3-6-1 (which read 3.1-3-0-1 at one stage). It is perhaps possible to imagine India reaching this far without any of their batters’ contributions, but not without ZAK, who had always delivered at crucial junctures. With both openers out reasonably early, the duo of Sangakkara and Jayawardene crafted a threatening partnership, before that man Yuvraj sent the captain back to his hut. Zaheer took a wicket in his second spell – as was probably part of his World Cup contract – to leave Sri Lanka at 183/5 after 40 overs. The next 5 overs were quiet before Mahela – with Kulasekara first and Perera later – took off in the last 5 batting power-play overs to take the total to 274. Zaheer’s figures went from incredible to incredulous. They crossed what experts had been calling a par score and got into dangerous territory, given the high-pressure match and the stakes involved. The batsmen hugged in celebration in the middle, leaving 1.2 billion people wondering and worried.
After the longest 30 minutes of my life, the Indian chase began. Sehwag fell without troubling the scorers and then Sachin followed soon. How could he be out? It was supposed to be his World Cup. He had helped carry the team this far, scoring two centuries and other important knocks and being the highest scorer for India in the tournament. This wasn’t part of the fairytale script! An entire nation feared a heartbreak. Kohli replaced him, and together with Gambhir steadied the ship a little before Kohli too departed. An out-of-form Dhoni came above Yuvraj who was enjoying the form of his life time. At 114-3, it appeared like a tactical blunder. But by the time Gambhir got out for 97 with the score on 223, it had become the smartest move Dhoni was ever going to make in his career. With Yuvraj for company, Dhoni ensured there was no more drama left. Star Cricket HD viewers got to see footage of the entire stadium singing Vande Mataram in chorus – oh it was magical.
And then the moment arrived. “Dhoni finishes off in style. A magnificent strike into the crowd! India lift the World Cup after 28 years!” screamed Ravi Shastri on air. A nation shouted with him. Dhoni just tweaked his elbow. Yuvraj hugged his captain and wouldn’t let go. The Indian team ran to the stadium. There were celebrations all around. The crowd had gone berserk. People all over the country were dancing in their homes, on the street, everywhere. Sachin was given a lap of honour. Kohli said they were carrying someone who had carried the team for 22 years. They HAD won the World Cup for him – and for 1.2 billion other people.
Indian cricket was to go on a downward spiral from there – series were meekly surrendered; key players retired; team selections raised more eyebrows than ever before; BCCI’s dominance got even murkier; Ed Hawkins wrote a book on the matches being fixed. But no matter how bad things got and will get, nothing will be able to take away the pure, unparalleled and unadulterated joy of that moment. Nothing.
It has been only 2 years since we last won a World Cup!