It was a miracle
of a match. Rains being a spoilsport in the most important encounter of the
tournament the final between India and England in Edgbaston finally became a T20 match with one-day rules. England in the
morning won the toss and looking at the weather decided naturally to field
first. Then the rains, rains and rains. The crowds never gave up hope though.
Some genuine cricket lovers of genuine cricket cursed the ICC for not keeping a
reserve day for the all-important final involving the hosts England and the best undefeated team of the
tournament India.
India started batting
with the opening pair of Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma making a relatively
good start, though repeated rain interruptions did not help them much. England had
them on the mat at 65/5 in the 14th over. But thanks to the most
incredible all-rounder for India in this tournament Ravindra Jadeja with Virat
Kohli took his team to a fighting 129/7 in the allotted twenty overs. While not
even the most optimistic really thought India
would win India had England on the mat at 46/4 in the 9th
over Bopara and Morgan almost ensured an England win. Then the miracle of
miracles.
Indian captain
Mahendra Singh Dhoni brought on his most expensive bowler of the chasse Ishant
Sharma in the 18th over saving his most precious spinners Jadeja and
Ashwin for the last two overs when most cricket expert said the match would
almost be over by then as England
needed just 30 runs off three overs with six wickets remaining. Ishant was hit
for a six...to make matters worse he bowled two wides next…and then…he took two
wickets in two balls. England
batsmen got into a maze giving India
an extremely avoidable run out. With the unplayable spinners in operation England had a
hard task hauling up the required 19 runs off the last two overs. Finally India won the match by a miraculous five-run
margin and became the deserving winner of the ICC Champions Trophy-2013 played
in England and Wales.
What a way to
compensate for the domestic unrest regarding the IPL Spot or Match fixing
scandal. That there was not even a single firecracker burst in Mumbai said
volumes about people’s loss of faith in the game. But mind you, even the deftest
and experienced bookies, betters, punters, brokers and fixers just could not have had a
clue to this match of unpredictable twists and turns. More seriously, the tale
of utter devastation and sufferings and loss of lives in the north Indian state
of Uttarakhand following torrential rains and cloud bursts could be one crucial
reason for the apathetic response to a most memorable Indian win.
That India now has
the ICC Champions Trophy too in its bag is still some good reason to celebrate
a little. At least some good to get over the ugly to some extent. In our
opinion poll eighty percent voted for an Indian win. We thank all of you for
participating.
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