My little tribute to GOD and his men

In these 28 years, our nation has come a long way. Today, as the first 30 minutes of Indian innings progressed, I found uncanny similarity between my first faint recollection of the 1996 match between India and Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens. As our innings faltered and Kambli put up the sole resistance against the mighty Ranatungas and De Silvas, I sat at a corner and cried the night out. Today too the situation had an eerie similarity. The Ranatungas and DeSilvas were replaced by Jayewardene’s and Sangakaraas. The Indian chase faltered in a very striking fashion. Everything looked the same except for one thing, India and its Indianness. We have really come a long way. The coyness has been replaced by aggression. Optimism has replaced struggle. "Can we do it" has been replaced by “We can do it". No matter the initial fall of the precious wickets, we were witness to some of the finest innings in the history of cricket. What swept me off was the patience and mental strength that was displayed by both Dhoni and Gambhir under pressure. Many of us spend a lifetime to live up to the expectations of a single person. Imagine living up to the expectation of a billion plus people. For the 3 hours of Indian innings I was stuck to the same position without flipping. Almost petrified initially then later held back by the crept-in superstition about retaining the status-quo as our innings was built brick and mortar by Gambhir and Virat. How often have we discussed and written off Dhoni in this World Cup criticizing his batting. We often raised this question that, “Is it really that Dhoni is so good a captain or just that he has landed a very good team to play with?" Today, the most understated captain of all time simply silenced a generation by coming up the order and taking the responsibility on his shoulders. He took it on him and he did it in style. How often do we fail to see the genius of a person behind the veils of our ignorance? Today they proved them all wrong. Today they rescripted the World Cup Final history. Never before a team with a player's hundred in the finals have lost the finals. Today they did. In the end, I still cried, but this time and probably for the first time ever, I was happy to let my tears flow by. We have arrived. This goes out as a tribute to our little master. The GOD himself!!