The Asian Champs !!

The people of India are now in a celebration mood after the Indian team clinched its Asia cup after 15 long years. It has been a good and quick climb up the ladder after the disappointing Zimbabwe tour. Team India played their heart out in every field of the sport and outclassed every other Asian team. The Asia Cup win will give the men in blue a thick edge over other teams ahead of the bigger event, the World Cup.

The win against Bangladesh in both the league games showed great team spirit and the players gained a lot of confidence. Players to the likes of Gambhir, Rohit Sharma are slowly unwinding themselves showing individual scores can bring about a good team total. The penultimate league game against Pakistan was a cliffhanger of a match, as it was expected to be. The players played with great competitive spirit and especially when India and Pakistan meet, there is bound to be some positive energy with both the players and their respective supporters as well. The final league game against SriLakans was a let down to the Indian team, but they were back with a bang providing the sucker punch in the finals.

The finals between India and SriLanka saw an awesome batting performance by Team India and their quality seam bowling under lights lit up the moment. Dinesh Karthik played a responsible innings until he succumbed to a Kandamby delivery. Raina’s quickie 29 came handy to the Indians when the run rate dropped down and Rohit Sharma yet again displayed a classic performance stitching partnerships with every man who came in. Ravindra Jadeja’s innings of 25 from 27 balls indeed helped Team India to climb to a target of 268 from their quota of 50 overs.

The high spirited bowling from the men in blue struck crucial wickets at regular intervals. The fall of Dilshan in the first over, was indeed a huge loss for the Singhalese. The next man to go, Tharanga let in a Zaheer delivery without attempting a shot, only to find his stumps rearranged and it confirmed the presence of some help for the quickies. Dhoni constantly operated his medium pace bowlers from both ends. And Once Nehra struck the wickets of Jayawardena and Matthews in his first over, the Lankans were put on their back foot. Sangakkara and Kandamby called on their brilliant cover drives to fetch some runs, but they were all short lived. The depth in the Lankan batting attack slowly began to dwindle but one man who made us all twist our heads his way was Kapugedara. The Lankan tail began to get some runs in his company. His swashbuckling batting ability began to gain some attention before the wickets of Maharoof and Kulasekara fell. It almost brought the curtains down for the SriLankans and it was all a matter of time before everything wrapped up and when Murali nicked a jadeja delivery into Dhoni’s army gloves, it signaled India’s jubilant win against the Lankans. Team India outsmarted the Lankans in every department of the game and not to forget the tidy spells bowled by spearheads Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra.

The Asia Cup win will have a huge impact on the Indian Team and will give them the much needed confidence and spirit. The boys will all be geared up to showcase their skills and prove their competitiveness in the bigger arena, the World Cup.

Now generally, the litmus test for assessing a team’s stature and dominance in world cricket will be the World Cup, which is coming up next on the charts. Dhoni’s army now has a big job up their sleeve and there is a huge expectation to fulfill the cricket-mad people back here in India. Team India will for sure be waiting to get their hands on the gold lady and go cock-a-hoop over their twin victories!