Well , this post should have been my about the final , the dream , the achievement but considering the goosebumps all of us must have felt witnessing the scenes on April 2nd at the Wankhede stadium , I realised I had no words to clothe that feeling .The jubilation , the sheer joy , the raw happiness and pride. How I would trade my 25 years of existence for those moments.Okay , here I go !, this was the very reason I didnt post after the final. Congratulations to the World Cricket Champions - Team India.
Moving beyond the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, back to the dreary life , I thought this IPL I shall not follow , I didnt want to spoil the after-taste you know.Rather I was put-off by the circus they were making out of the game.I decided Im going to be cool about it and not waste time in discussions at work ,home ,friends but there I was! , rattling away during office lunch resolving -which player belongs to which franchise.Oh common , we are all suckers for cricket at the end of the day. So then lets get to our local franchise - Royal Challengers Bangalore.Post the IPL auction , I wasnt very gung ho about the RCB team. The reasons being :- Rahul Dravid , Manish Pandey , Robin Uthappa ( yes priority too in the same order) were let go. The team lacked the local flavour.
Come today morning , I peruse through our line-up.The team had a formidable look with the batting comprising of Kohli ,Dilshan , AB , Pujara and Saurabh Tiwary. And the team looked balanced with the bowling department consisting of Zak, Abhimanyu Mithun ,Dirk Nannes and of course topped off by the bespectacled Vettori.But there were two other names which caught my eye - Mayank Agarwal and Asad Khan Pathan. The former was the shining light of the Indian team in the U-19 world cup and it helps to know that he is inspired by none other than Sehwag . But for me the heartening factor was the blooding of the 26 year old Asad Khan Pathan , with the scouts following him over the Aurangabad Premier league last year and Anand Premier League this year.
After being set a target of 163 by this year's debutant team Kochi Tusker Kerala , RCB had made a decent start of 63/2 in 7 overs with Mayank giving AB company and Dilshan ,Kohli having departed.Although I did not watch the match entirely , I sat down for the last 3 overs and we required 33.Cricket's polymath AB de Villiers played a blinder 54 of an innings with 5 shots over the fence ( poor Gomez).And 13 required to win off the final over.Biff, wide , biff, bamm , 3 hits to the fence , game over. Asad Pathan , finishes it off with some beefy legside pulls, making Vinay Kumar ( former RCB) look pedestrian in the process.Oh these mighty Pathans, what do they eat?!! Asad did nothing but enhance the Pathan's reputation. Siddharth Mallya summed it up by saying "We didnt have to be pay 20 or 30 million to get him(Asad)". Nevertheless lets hope this is not a flash in the pan.
The RCB team is very different from its formers and what stands out most is its style - dashing and fearless.
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