We Are the Champions of the World

With the Cup that Counts

We did it. We won the World Cup. And as Queen would have said - "We are the champions my friend! We shall be fighting until the end. We are the champions. We are the champions of the World!"

I don't even know how to begin this post. I guess just sticking to my usual to the random thoughts as they come up to mind.

• Before the match I had 3 wishes - India to win, SRT to get the 100th & Murali to sign off with a wicket off his last international ball. Only the first one happened (And thats all was required)
• Most members of the Indian team said they wanted to win the cup for Sachin. And they did it. I guess Virat Kohli summed it up best when he said, "Sachin has carried the nation for 21 years, so he deserves to be carried around".
• Dhoni led from the front. Saved his best for the last. And sealed the victory with a straight six. The leader everyone wants, and not just for a sporting team.
• Last time the India played the World Cup at home it ended in Vinod Kambli's tears. This time around it also ended in tears but of a different note. The one of happiness.
• Zaheer Khan's second world cup final ended the way the first one had begun. But this one started brilliantly though.
• Mahela Jayawardene became the first man to be part of the losing side after scoring a century in the final. Still this was one of the great innings of the tournament (though later got eclipsed by the efforts of Gambhir & Dhoni). The innings also provided a nice little family scene with his wife imploring him to bat on after he had reached his half-century.
• Aleem Dar finished with a spotless world cup. Not a single decision reversed. Needless to say why he is the best umpire in the world.
• Simon Taufel finally was able to stand in a World Cup final, because Australia failed to qualify. This must be one weird feeling. Taufel must be the only Australian cricket personality who gets benefited when Australia doesn't perform well.
• Jeff Crowe continued his incompetent ways as a Match referee. Presided over the farcial finish in the 2007 final and then had the toss fiasco at the start of today's final.
• Have to say the run chase was nearly four hours of sheer nervousness which ended in total joy.
• Thanks to Gary Kirsten, for giving us this team. It was a sight to watch the support staff walking arm in arm behind the Indian team and then Kohli & Raina carrying Kirsten around the stadium.
• Farewell to Muttiah Muralitharan, a true legend. 
• Gautam Gambhir top scored in T20 World Cup final and now in the big final also.
• Piyush Chawla & Sreesanth are now in a select group of players to have won the 50 over & the T20 world cup. The full list (all Indians so far) - Dhoni, Yuvraj, Sehwag, Harbhajan, Gambhir, Yusuf Pathan, Sreesanth & Chawla 
• Commentary Moment of the Match - Gavaskar & Nasser Hussain discussing the number of bats carried by cricketers. Gavaskar mentioned Sourav Ganguly carrying 10-12 bats. To which Nasser Hussain replied that Ganguly did not carry them himself, somebody else did it for him.
• And in the end, Lets not forget Praveen Kumar, who missed out due to an injury
• The comment of the day - "Anhoni ko honi kar de, honi ko anhoni, ek jagah jab jama ho teeno, Rajni, Ghazini aur Dhoni":D. (Rajnikanth was there, India couldn't have lost)
• Just wondering - What about Poonam Pandey's promise. Her letter to BCCI is certainly interesting.

In the end, a big thanks to the Indian Team, for winning the World Cup for us, the ordinary Indian fans.
And now for the victory pictures (all from cricinfo)

The Victory Moment - Dhoni blazes it away, as Yuvraj celebrates

Thank You - Gary Kirsten

Thank You - Sachin

World Cup Thoughts - March 17th

Straight into the bullet points today

• England are at it again. How do they manage to make every game exciting regardless of the opposition?
• After 6 games, all of which they could have won or lost, England are somewhere in the middle of the table. Not yet qualified but not yet out though.
• Most of the England players seem to have hair issues. Going by the number of nerve sapping games that they are having, no wonder.
• Moment of the Day - Trott's catch off Russel. England's Hope seemingly depended on if Trott's shirt was on the rope. I thought it was not. Simon Taufel seeing the same replays thought it was and gave it a six. He umpires in top level cricket, I do not. 
• Andre Russel did everything with the ball, on the field and with the bat, yet could not win it for West Indies.
• For sheer entertainment, England deserve some award not the cup itself.
• And for tomorrow, a battle for honor between Ireland & Netherlands and a placing match between Sri Lanka & New Zealand.
• Wondering why Sri Lanka is playing a game in Mumbai when they are co-hosting the Cup?