Three jinxes broken

The Indian cricket team broke a three way jinx to become the world champions of cricket with a 6 wicket win over Sri Lanka at the Wankhede stadium, Mumbai on 2nd April 2011. There were three things between them and the World Cup - no host team has ever won a world cup, a team with a century maker in the world cup final always ends up on the winning side (India didn't have any century maker in their innings) and the team chasing a target in a World Cup final has choked more times than it didn't.

But this was a different breed of Indian talent - the never say die, unbeatable force of Indian cricket. Who would have imagined after a score of 0/1 or losing both Sachin and Sehwag before the Sri Lankan bowlers had even warmed up, that the middle order would not only soak pressure but go on to win the World Cup title in a final event, in front of a packed Mumbai stadium where cricket emotions run deep.

What the fans witnessed in the few hours of the Indian batting was the fact that champions may have some obstacles to clear, but when the occasion demands, talent silences everything else. They showed that the Indian batting was not only good on paper, it had the ammunition to fire when the team needed it. As Kumar Sangakkara, the Sri Lankan captain said during the presentation "When I look at the Indian batting line up, I think anything less than 350 would not have been enough". This is the problem any team batting first will face - there is just no score that the Indian batsmen cannot annihilate.

During the match presentation, when Dhoni was asked about his performance, he said he had to deliver today - if not there would be several questions on the decisions he made. Q1: Why Sreesanth, not Ashwin Q2: Why did he promote himself ahead of Yuvraj....and the list goes on. What MD Dhoni has done for Indian cricket is that he has innovated in such a way that it does bring questions to the mind of the common man. But it does defy odds and help silence the critics and also break several of the jinxes that exists.

Perhaps the most fitting comment came from Kohli when Tendulkar was being carried around the ground: "He's carried the burden of the nation on his nation for 21 years, its time we carried him on our shoulders".

The new Indian team is a rejuvenated one. What they look forward to is introducing some fresh blood to complete the exquisite batting line up with some killer fast bowling.

A BIG congratulations to the Indian team, they deserved the World Cup. Sachin completed adorning his silverware with the last, most coveted piece. Cheers!