T-20 WORLD CUP FINAL: ASPECTS TO LOOK AT FOR INDIA

Sachin Tendulkar stumped by Romesh Kaluwitharana in the 1996 world cup semi-final and eventually the intensely passionate crowd at Eden Gardens bursting and throwing fiery stuffs at the field, end result being India ruled out of the world cup.

Sourav Ganguly playing the innings of his life when the two teams meet again in the 1999 world cup and his partnership with Rahul Dravid setting a newer benchmark for the upcoming generation of Indian batting.

The world after a long time seeing the Indian quick’s firing in the 2003 world cup when the two teams meet again. Srilankan batting line up tormented at Johanesburg.

And, off course yes, who can forget the greatest of them all, the 2011 World Cup final! India becoming world champions almost after three decades, and who was on the loosing side? None other than Srilanka!

India and Srilanka have always had in store some of the greatest world cup clashes. Both have relied on one another at one point or the other on the grandest stage of them all!

Well this time one relies on the other to quest for the World Title in the shorter format, the T-20 venture. I was just scrolling through….through….through nothing and then I deduced some facts which the Indians have to watch out for in their 2^nd T-20 final:

Retain the spur in bowling… for at least one more encounter: We saw the stars of Amit Mishra a bit faded in the semifinal against South Africa, whereas Ravi Ashwin pulled off a miraculous display of spin bowling. Amit Mishra has been fabulous throughout the tournament and just one more magical spell is anticipated from him. The likes of Ashwin, Jadeja, Bhuvi and Mohit Sharma are also expected to chip in with the spells of their lives and who knows, we can get to see a 2007 again!

Yuvraj Singh to yet again portray his mettle at the biggest stage: Yuvraj Singh showed an excellent batting performance against his favourite opponent, the Aussies. He again failed to impress against the Proteas! But he is expected to dominate against the Asian Champions in the finale, particularly with his merciless slogs over mid wicket against both the quickies and the slow bowlers.

Virat, Rohit, Raina, Rahane and Dhoni need to fire again: The Indian batting has been extremely impressive and all the mentioned names have put on an impeccable show when anticipated. This time the anticipation from them is even more. All they need to do is, walk in, stay positive right from the word go, and play their natural strokes. (As if I am a batting expert! )

 The last thing, which might have a comic appeal… “The Law of Averages”:

Blessing in disguise is something which everyone anticipates for (plenty of anticipations in this post!) , but the game of cricket has always had a curse in disguise associated with it, from considerable number of decades… the fearsome Law of Averages! In simple words, a team that wins each of its matches before entering the final, has to be on the loosing side in the greatest game! Well this has happened so fluently in the past that some captains desire to loose a contest or a two before playing the finals. Though Captain Cool has a fortune inherited from the strangest of classes and he has merely converted all the facts of the game to fiction like the ICC Champions Trophy-2013 where India had every game and also conquered the final fort, but still this fearsome aspect is the one thing that can bring lines of worry on even the coolest heads!

From a cricket freak’s point of view, that is what all I can say about the final scheduled tomorrow. Lets again hope that Dhoni and his men will produce another magic and we would end up being the first nation to have hold on the 50 overs and the 20 overs world championship simultaneously!

#Chak De India

#Bleed Blue