'The' Match

The match is over,as the media has hyped…in a way it can be of some consolation when compared to a loss,which seemed impending after the English side had most of the reasons to smile after three days of the match! Of course,what happened after that is most important,and which matters..First of all, salute to the master on guiding India to the biggest ever run chase in the sub-continent!

This match had the previlage of yours truly watching it[:P] ,my first time….to describe….i was a bit let down due to a few reasons,I’d imagined a much bigger playing area..or so the satellite images appear to be! Dravid not scoring was one more let down…him being the victim of a bad decision was even worse[:-/]

The brighter side was the batting of Sachin tendulkar,worshipped across the globe as the god of cricket,held in high esteem by every other great the game has seen,Lara,And The Don himself,to mention a few!..every bowler’s nightmare!
Self confessed by Shane warne as: I had visions of Sachin walking down the track,Smashing me overhead for a six!

Getting back to my topic,It was awesome to watch him play,though he scored only a 37,It was simply amazing to watch! Especially the square cut! Laxman showed us why he is one among the Fab four, for a short while though.Harbhajan set off some fireworks towards the day’s close and that was it..the rest was followed on the tv!

The most stunning thing to me was how the crowd gets behind the players[J] it was so different and more enjoyable maybe watching it there.The way Dravid defended one of Flintoff’s deliveries,the ball traveling over 140kph, just dropped dead!That was awesome!

The phase which swung the match in our favour was Sehwag’s blistering 83! I missed it when it was being played as I’d gone out,but of course nothing much was missed I guess, as I caught up with the boundaries later on…and most of the runs were scored in boundaries[:P] Mention here has to be made about Strauss’ resolute innings..he scored centuries in both the innings,something that not everyone can do and only the fifth to do so against India speaks volumes about the task!

Coming to the part which was crucial,The stand between Sachin and Yuvi..Not much of a Yuvi fan,But couldn’t help but admiring his play and the way he grew taking confidence from the master of course!

Post match,the speech by Sachin,as he said this century or this victory isn’t going to make any change to the grief of the people struck by terror in Mumbai,not to play it down,he did what he was best at properly

All said, let me come to this point…the rubbish about taking Dravid out of the team!How much more does he have to prove himself?A man who has scored enough to get him sixth on the highest scorers 3 whom ahead of him don’t wield the willow anymore,the man who did lots to the team when it needed,the man widely regarded as ‘The Wall’..Fondly referred to as ‘The fortress’ by warnie,now is just going through a bad patch…now its our turn to get behind him and relieve him off the stress he’s going through.Let’s be clear in that and just be sensible enough to understand that he’s got cricket inside him left and the greatest of hearts,grit the extent of which can be compared to ten Everests.

Signing off hoping to see some more great cricket[:)]
P.S:I sorta was agape at Harmison's bulk! Man! was he huge!