Mohali...My Take

Folks, I am no cricketing expert, in fact if anything I am an ex-buff, so I don't really know even if I have any right to blog this. Nevertheless, for one having interviewed almost the entire Pakistani team in India, under Asif Iqbal,way back in the late eighties when they came for the first time after the bitterness and having been a rabid India supporter, who hated every moment when India lost, what came as a big plus and an even bigger surprise was the fact that the India Pakistan semi final played at Mohali on 30th March was by far the best "spirited" game I have ever watched.

One expected sledging, complains, shoulder busting, but both teams not only behaved with caution on the field, there was genuine visible camaraderie!

As for the factors that got India to the finals, the biggest was the four letter word in cricket, LUCK! Look at Sachin's lives, luck! Look at Dhoni having misread the wicket,taking a quickie on a spinner, thinking it would be a "quicket"! Luck. Batsmen so vaunted having done badly one by one, Gambhir, Kohli, Yuvraj, and all the bowlers making a mark collectively, not only taking two wickets apiece, but not giving more than 8 extras in fifty overs! Luck. Look at India's pathetic fielding performances in the run up to Mohali, suddenly we had 11 Jaunty Rhodes! Luck!

The fact that Afridi chose to come in at No.8, despite the fact that he could have hit Pak out of trouble had he come before the sullenly sad looking Abdul Razzaq. Luck.

Fortune they say, favours the brave,it did, in great measure at Mohali for the Indian braves.

Needless to say, Dhoni's captaincy, field placements and on field strategy were spot on, and everyone fielded and bowled out of their skins, but there's no denying that LUCK was a constant companion at Mohali.

Let me tell you, we are going to win the finals at Mumbai, and we will be doing it with all guns blazing, the batters, the bowlers and the fielders, and tell you what, LUCK will be taking a back seat there!

Cheers

Sanjay A Sayani