First of all let me congratulate the "MEN IN BLUE" for regaining the glory of 1983 by winning the 2011 World cup, that too after 3 finals not 1!
Why I feel 3 finals, is because the last three matches India played were high pressure matches with Mighty Australians, Arch rivals Pakistan and the final match with Srilankans. Quarter-final match was against last 3 cup winners, Australians was truly "final before seminal". And the match with the Pakistan in the World cup, in India is always a high pressure match that too in semi finals is "Finals before Finals". And the ultimate match finals against last World cup runners up Srilankans. I will not go into the details of the individual matches, but will talk about the the "Dhoni Devils" in coming parts.
To be frank before the tournament, I never thought (even tough wanted I wanted them to win) they will win the World cup. And I have (or had) my own reasons for like our fast bowling (apart from Zaheer Khan), lack of wicket taking spin bowlers, low experienced middle order and etc. In fact in 2003 I really thought India might have had a real chance to win because of the team combination we had. The star studded batting line up like the Sachin Tendulkar, firing Sehwag, captain Sourav Ganguly, the wall Rahul Dravid, Mysore express Srinath, young Zaheer Khan and many others. But I guess, March 23, 2003 was not threir day!
But that is history now and I am happy to be wrong in this World cup. What I really feel about this team is the ease with which they take every match and calm execution without bothering about the pressure, the high attention and expectation (media created hype! Some times I wonder whether the 1983 World cup winners got this much hype or not even after the win so much so that these guys got before the start of the tournament), hosting pressure and so much. But each and every team player believed in themselves, never give up attitude, team performance and lead by a great gambling and risk taking captain won the World cup for us.
Starting from believing in not in form player Yuvraj Singh, who would ever thought he will be the match winning player almost all matches.
Selecting Virat Kohli in playing 11 against Suresh Raina for the crucial place no. 3rd/4th place
Suresh Raina fielding almost more than 100 overs even before he actually started playing in main 11.
Replacing Yusuf Pathan with Suresh Raina for the crucial stage of the tournament.
Then picking R Ashwin for playing 11 against Australia and giving him new ball with Zaheer Khan.
Then dropping Ashwin (who was quite successful against mighty Australians) for Nehra against Pakistan for semifinals.
Sehwag attacking Pakistan's main and successful bowler Umar Gul in his first spell demotivating their strength.
Sachin's match winning knock even though he was dropped 4 times by Pakistan players.
Raina's crucial 36 runs in the slog overs with tail enders with Pakistan
Picking Sreeshanth in place in place of injured Nehra against Ashwin with better players of the spinners, the Srilankans.
The kind of fielding temperament shown by young Raina, Kohli, Yuvraj and even Tendulkar were exceptional in the final match. Off-side was fully blocked by these people for Srilankans.
Virat Kohli and Gautham Gambhir's partnership after the crucial initial blow of 2 wickets of Sehwag and Sachin. Witout taking risks and ticking the score board with singles and doubles and maintaining required runrate below 6 was the crucial in yesterday's match.
Dhoni's entry after Kohli's exit by promoting himself above Yuvraj (who is in really good form) keeping in mind right-left combination for linkan off-spin attack. And also covering Yuvraj (whose backlift is high and suffered set back against Pakistan for a quick and surprise yorker) from Malinga's yorkers for finishing the match if necessity arises.
And again taking singles and doubles without much risk by rotating the strike and building tension in Lankan camp by not loosing further wicket was turning point of the match.
And more over each player backed every other player in almost all occasions and they stood together from Fielding, Bowling, Batting and even while "LIFTING THE CUP"
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