Cricket T20: Team India Back Where It Belongs, Beat England In Pune Match!

Riding on a vintage knock by the player of the match Yuvraj Singh (38 off 21 balls) and useful contributions by Raina and Dhoni India registered a comfortable 5 wicket win over England in the first cricket Twenty20 match in Pune tonight. Captain Dhoni won the toss and elected to field maybe due to dew factor. England looked to be in position for a big total, but thanks to some good bowling by Dinda and Yuvraj folded up for a modest 157/6 in allotted 20 overs. Team India never had any serious problems chasing it down with more than two overs to spare. India lead the two-match Series 1-0. The Scorecard:

Take a look at the England T20 cricket team—no Test team there at all except for one or two players with captain Cook going back home after a rewarding Series win. Whereas, it is almost the same Test team for India. And MS Dhoni—he captains India or Indian clubs in all possible formats of the game. Poor him! As we all know he cannot be changed or replaced, because he continues to be the top selling brand. His oft repeated complaints of ‘too much cricket’ get invariably drowned in ‘too much money or stakes’. This is the reality of Indian cricket—the money spinning short formats and the IPL have always been founded on the cricket superstars of India as irreversible brands. Any cricket businessman or investor would hardly do business in cricket sans the icons and the super brands. With Pakistan playing a short format cricket Series in India this Christmas now is definitely not the moment for any change. 

And, behold the contrasts this great country offers unfailingly. Last two days the whole nation had been hurt, anguished and angry over the brutal gangrape in Delhi. Tonight you see thousands of crazy crowds cheering and celebrating an Indian cricket victory. The 23 year old victim in Delhi is still critical but stable. She is conscious but cannot speak yet and was communicating through writing—asking her mother if her torturing demons had been caught or not. Then you behold fireworks lighting up the Pune night sky. The Indian news channels busy last two days in full blast social campaigns for the rape victim have today told you only about the results of the elections in two Indian States. Both of the outcomes, particularly for the state of Gujarat, had been more or less entirely anticipated. Everybody expected Narendra Modi to achieve a hat-trick win as Chief Minister in Gujarat and as per rotation rules everybody expected Congress to come back victorious in Himachal Pradesh. But still the hype of hypes (poll of polls?) got no less intense. Well, this is the India we all know and we always live happily ever after.