By Parvathy Gopalakrishnan
The tricolour’s ready to sway in full pride. Faces ready to be painted, trumpets ready to be blown. The streets of India will be deserted. It’ll be time for families to unite in their living rooms, for friends to catch up over beer. It’s the best possible day to go and say on the face of your boss, “Dude, I’m not gonna work.”
Wankhede is ready to welcome the dignitaries, the fans and the warriors who take centre stage. Yes, its almost time to witness cricket’s biggest extravaganza, and this one promises to be a cracker of a match. Two squads in blue, vying to lay their hands on the most precious cricket possession: the beauty, the Cup.
While fans are leaving no stone unturned to make this a memorable experience, the “men who matter” too, will be all pumped up. Time to get the act right. Plan, prioritize, perform- that should be the ideal strategy. The wicket’s gonna be dry, and 260 should be a decent score to defend and tricky one to chase.
With Nehra being ruled out due to injury, it’ll be interesting to see what the playing 11 will look like. Will Dhoni fall upon rookie Ashwin, or will there be a reliance on the pacers? And its injury woes for the Lankan team as well, with Angelo Matthews out of the side, prompting a replacement in Suraj Randiv. This replacement could well be a two edged sword. While Sri Lanka will definitely miss Matthews’ services as a middle order batsman and part time bowler, Randiv’s inclusion could spring a few surprises for the hosts.
And if Sehwag is in his usual “rip ‘em apart” mode, piling up runs in the mandatory powerplay, we could well be on our way to witnessing some scintillating cricket. If the pace battery and spin attack work, then we can be sure of one thing – the cup isn’t going anywhere! Yuvraj and Raina being in a good nick as well, things don’t look tense.
Home advantage , a “more-than-million” prayers, a strong side – all this should work in our favour. However, strategies still remain a key concern. Using the DRS judiciously and taking the batting powerplay wisely will be the key. For the ones in the darker shade of blue, Dilshan, Jayawardane, and Sangakkara hold the formula. Their main concern would be their middle and lower middle order. And when they have THE spin wizard himself, the worry should be a tad less.
The stage is set for the climax. While most of us would want India to win, the fact remains that whichever nation takes Cup back home, will honour a legend playing for their side.
Showing posts with label World Cup final. Show all posts
Showing posts with label World Cup final. Show all posts
Saturday, 2 April 2011
Friday, 1 April 2011
The Final Frontier; All Eyes on Sachin and Murali
by SHUVAIT KOUL
With less than 24 hours away from the epic battle-the grand finale of 2011 cricket World Cup, a billion hearts in India will be pumping for the greatest prize in cricket to be brought home.
This World Cup final is special in more ways than one- a) The whole nation and cricket lovers across the globe will be rooting for the Little Master Sachin Tendulkar to complete his 100th international hundred and help team India repeat the eternal saga of 1983. b) Arguably the greatest off-spinner the world has ever seen-Muttiah Muralitharan, will be seen spinning magic for the last time. c)For the first time in the history of the game two subcontinent teams have made it to the finals.
With Sachin coming home to complete perhaps his only milestone left that is of making India the world champions, Wankhede promises to be an absolute slobber knocker.
At 37, the flamboyance and greed for runs in him refuses to die down. He will make all the tricks in his book come into play on the day.
He had missed out on the previous occasion when India had reached the finals of 2003 World Cup, trying to pull one through mid wicket ending up getting caught and bowled by McGrath. But considering that this will be his last World Cup appearance, he will come out all guns blazing to lift the cup for India and add another feather to his cap.
Murali tweeted this morning that no matter what he will play the ultimate encounter even if he is not a hundred percent fit and went on to say that this is going to be the biggest match of his life.
This gives us an idea of how hungry this wily old fox is. He is desperate to play the game and make his presence felt so that Sri Lanka can once again display their mighty recital of 1996.
Come Saturday and the extravaganza is going to be like never before. The two Asian giants will set the stage on fire as the whole world witnesses this colossal clash of the titans.
With less than 24 hours away from the epic battle-the grand finale of 2011 cricket World Cup, a billion hearts in India will be pumping for the greatest prize in cricket to be brought home.
This World Cup final is special in more ways than one- a) The whole nation and cricket lovers across the globe will be rooting for the Little Master Sachin Tendulkar to complete his 100th international hundred and help team India repeat the eternal saga of 1983. b) Arguably the greatest off-spinner the world has ever seen-Muttiah Muralitharan, will be seen spinning magic for the last time. c)For the first time in the history of the game two subcontinent teams have made it to the finals.
With Sachin coming home to complete perhaps his only milestone left that is of making India the world champions, Wankhede promises to be an absolute slobber knocker.
At 37, the flamboyance and greed for runs in him refuses to die down. He will make all the tricks in his book come into play on the day.
He had missed out on the previous occasion when India had reached the finals of 2003 World Cup, trying to pull one through mid wicket ending up getting caught and bowled by McGrath. But considering that this will be his last World Cup appearance, he will come out all guns blazing to lift the cup for India and add another feather to his cap.
Murali tweeted this morning that no matter what he will play the ultimate encounter even if he is not a hundred percent fit and went on to say that this is going to be the biggest match of his life.
This gives us an idea of how hungry this wily old fox is. He is desperate to play the game and make his presence felt so that Sri Lanka can once again display their mighty recital of 1996.
Come Saturday and the extravaganza is going to be like never before. The two Asian giants will set the stage on fire as the whole world witnesses this colossal clash of the titans.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)