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RevSportz Comment
“Dhoni finishes off in style. A magnificent strike into the crowd. India lift the World Cup after 28 years…”
Unless you live under a rock or at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, you would have seen and heard that clip from April 2, 2011 replayed hundreds of times across the last dozen years. It’s probably safe to say that quarter-minute of Ravi Shastri is Indian television’s moon-landing moment – ‘One small step for man’ and all that.
But here’s the thing. India didn’t win the World Cup at the Wankhede Stadium. The biggest strides towards lifting it were made at the dusty old Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad on March 24. No, you’re not reading the script of Sliding Doors. And no substances have been ingested.
Think about it. World Cups are not won with one six, or even a run-out – Edgbaston 1999, we’re looking at you. A World Cup win is a fairy tale. As just as in those stories, to climb to the top of the mountain, you need to slay a giant. India didn’t do that at the Wankhede. The giant-killing was in Ahmedabad.
Someone who has just started following cricket now won’t even be able to imagine the aura that Australian cricket teams carried on to the big stage. By the time they arrived in Ahmedabad 12 years ago, they had not lost a World Cup match of consequence since the 1996 final. Across the 2003 and 2007 editions, they had won 22 matches straight. They weren’t just the greatest ODI team that cricket had seen. They were sporting royalty, comparable to the best sides to take the field in any sport.
That was the weight of history that India faced going into the 2011 quarterfinal. Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne may have retired, but those in green and gold could still call on all-time greats like Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke and Michael Hussey. The pace trio of Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson and Shaun Tait, the Wild Thing, was as rapid as any the competition had ever seen. Shane Watson had vast knowledge of Indian conditions from his time in the IPL, while David Hussey had a knack of muscling the ball over the rope when most needed.
India knew they couldn’t go in with a set template. Something had to be done to make Australia think twice. So, MS Dhoni and the team management picked R Ashwin in the XI, for the second – and last – time in the competition. Not only that, he was immediately thrown the ball once Australia decided to bat first. And it was Ashwin who provided the first breakthrough, getting Watson leg before on the sweep.
In any montage of World Cup wonder balls, you’ll find the one that Zaheer Khan bowled to Michael Hussey that afternoon. He had already flummoxed Devon Smith of West Indies with it in Chennai – a slower delivery propelled by the knuckle and almost impossible to read out of the hand. For the elder Hussey sibling, the ball was timed at 118 km/hr. He got nowhere near it.
Despite a memorable century from Ponting, Australia never reached the lift-off stage. After Hussey’s dismissal, they took 110 runs from 99 balls, and that too mostly because of a 38-run cameo from his younger sibling. A total of 260 looked around 20-30 short, but this was a knockout game. More importantly, it was Australia.
That evening, each of India’s top four got starts. But neither Sachin Tendulkar (53) nor Gautam Gambhir (50) could kick on, and when Dhoni flayed Lee to Clarke at point to leave India 187-5, the tension in the stands was thicker than the smog over Delhi on a winter morning. Suresh Raina, who walked in, had never been convincing against the short ball, and Australia had the firepower to run right through the lower order.
It helped Raina that Yuvraj Singh was at the other end, batting in the zone and with the composure of someone in the form of his life. We would only find out later how much Yuvraj’s body threatened to betray him during those six weeks, but on the field, he was just masterful. As he had in his debut series against McGrath and company nearly 12 years earlier, Yuvraj always seemed to have that extra split-second to punch the loveliest drives and cuts through the gaps.
Raina, the team nightingale who used to sing Lehron ki tarah yaadein and other Kishore Kumar classics to entertain Tendulkar, also grew into his role as the pressure mounted. His technique may not always have been the best, but there was no doubting his heart. If anything, the six he hit down the ground off Lee at the start of the 46th over is the enduring image of that night. Australia knew then that their reign would shortly be over.
Yes, we won’t forget Dhoni launching that ball into the Mumbai night or the manner in which he paused to admire the stroke. But if we’re talking 2011, it’s Yuvraj on his knees at the finish in Ahmedabad, roaring like a lion, that is THE freezeframe. The night Goliath was slain, when India knew the cup of joy would be theirs.