World Cup Final: A Preview

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.

Go India, Chak de Fatte!!

 by Parvathy Gopalakrishnan

The World Cup might be reaching its fag end, but this end, just like some of the last puffs of a cigarette, gives the maximum high!

Two out of the three nations hosting the mother of all cricketing events have got their tickets to the semis. An emphatic crowd, full house at Mohali, people playing birds - perching on tree-tops to catch the action live, chants of Hoo Haa India, an electric atmosphere…everything and more that a cricket fan could have bargained for.

While radio stations, TV channels, newspapers, and phones are abuzz with what will be the match like, mango people at pan shops and chai tapirs are also “as-busy-as-a-bee” discussing “ab kya hoga”, twisting their faces to match up with the discussion with an extremely serious look!! After all, this is India, where cricket transcends boundaries of sports and merges into the identity of people.

Some students, unfortunately, have exams and dreadful papers the very next day. Most students are going to be the victims of pre-planned illness- the regular stomach-ache, head-ache, and blah-blah ache! Shopkeepers are having a merry time selling team India tees, trumpets and what not. Cafes, too, have chalked out plans, coming up with special menus and offers. Radio channels are doing their bit by playing “Chak De India” type of songs to have the excitement building.

Let the trumpets bellow, drums beat. Bring on the colours, cheer out loud; the stage is set for the epic clash. It’s the blues vs the greens. Choose your colour right, and enjoy the cricketing fiesta!!