India has done it .They are showing the signs of achieving the top position in world cricket right from their disastrous departure in the preliminary round in the 2007 world cup. They won the twenty 20 world cup, became number one in test cricket, and became number two in one day ranking. They started the W C campaign as hot favourites and lived up to the expectations. As expected it was the strong batting line up of India that had done the trick. Indian batting was lead by Master Batsman Sachin Tendulkar,who is having an amazing run of form during the last couple of years, breaking records after records. This could probably because now Sachin could play without any burden of carrying the responsibility of the all team. Now we have so many talented players around him and he is now delivering the best in him.Sehwag has also done well in the WC although much was expected by him after his scintillating performance in the inaugural match against Bangla.He just couldn’t repeat that performance .But he could give India a confident start in almost all the games he played but for the final match.Gautham Gambhir proved once again what he is for. He was instrumental in building the innings in all the three knock out stage matches finishing with a glorious display in the finals. We can see the future captain in Gambhir.But the way in which he was dismissed in those three innings showed that he is vulnerable to pressure. Against Australia he was faced with three run out chances in 4 balls and perished in the third attempt. Against Pak he was stumped yielding to the pressure when he was going well. In the final he put India under little bit of Pressure after being bowled playing a reckless shot on 97.What a tremendous prospect we found in Kohli.The ease with which he build the innings and the array of strokes he has in his armoury was simply superb. He is young ,energetic and enigmatic. Lot can be expected from him in future.Ryna is another player who proved his worth. Although came into the team late, he played couple of knock that really set the fate of India in the world cup. He still have to improve playing in foreign pitches.Zaheer Khan as Sunil Gavaskar referred was the unsung hero of India in WC.Highest wicket taker in the tournament. Each time Dhoni tossed the ball the Zaheer at the time of crisis he produced break through. Remember he was the only Indian bowler who was in form. He had made up to his mistakes he done in the 2003 WC with his initial over costing 16 runs. That really cost us the match allowing Australia to get a commanding total. His bowing against England,Pakistan,Australia and Srilanka was outstanding.Dhoni depended him too much because Captain had no other option.Perfomance was only average or not upto the level in respect of Bajji,Patan,Piyush,Aswin,Munaf,Sreesanth. It was the Captain cool who emerged heroic amongst seekers of blood of the captain,who kept on criticising him throughout the tournament. He was criticised for selecting Piyush a head of Aswin and Sreesanth and for the inclusion of Munaf and Nehra in the side.Above all on his poor form with the bat.He could silence his critics by establishing the selection of team members in each match. Piyush put up a magnificent performance against Australia in the practise game.As a captain Dhoni was expecting Piyush to perfome against Australia,England,Newzealand,South frica and West Indies because these teams never ever been comfortable against legspin.But unfortunately this didn’t work and Piyush had to be dropped from the scquad.Keralites were hurt by the fact that Sreesanth was not playing. But Sree was given chance in the first and last match and proved very costly and that turned out to be the worst ever performance by Sree in his career.As a batsman Dhoni prepared to take responsibility and was cotiouss on occasions. On many occasions he ran out of partners in the middle of the innings. In the final match he bravely put himself up the order and played the innings any captain in the history of WC desired to have played in the final match. He sailed the ship to the coast safely and finished the tournament with six. The site of seeing the ball sailing over the boundary will last in the heart of every Indian for a long time. The shot was typical Dhoni shot.Ball was on the slot and the bottom hand came into play Bang.....the ball disappeared in the Gallery and the celebration began. It would be unfair to say nothing regarding Yuvi.Man of the tournament. Angry young man has done it again. In Yuvi case it is not his effort but the immense talent the man has in him that has helped him.I think he had not groomed his talent properly.Alround performance from Yuvi with the bat,ball and on the feild was superb.He emerged each time as a saviour on many occasion.A partnership,a wicket a magnificent save this was all that India expecting of this man .He delivered it not once not twice but many many times.4 man of the match awards, and good performances on almost all the occasions. Victory is always is delightful.Attaining success is easy but what is difficult is to maintain the winning stream. Let us hope that this Indian team will achieve greater heights.
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