INDIA - WORLD CHAMPIONS, 2007!

Ladies and gentlemen, after the most edge-of-seat, thrilling, gripping few hours of great cricket yesterday, Team India has emerged as the first ICC Twenty20 World Champions, and as Boomsa said, nothing can ever change this fact. Congratulations to the winners. It was a match worth the watching and could have swung wither way towards the very end, which is what I was hoping for in a final. [That I was hoping for many other things from this match is another matter altogether.... *wipes stray tears*]
Excellent write-up here.

Let's look at this match from a PURE MATH angle.

The afterMATHS: [Events not listed in chronological, organized manner since the writer is suffering hugely from emotional trauma and subsequent mental imbalance. Points listed below are coming in short, sporadic bursts like black nauseous waves. Other morbid allusions can be made but there is no time and it won't change anything.]
1. India defeat Pakistan to win the first ever Twenty20 World Cup by a narrow 5 runs in Over Number 40 of the day.
2. The BCCI announces a reward of USD 2 million for victorious Team India. This amount is approximately 0.0083% of what the BCCI actually has in its coffers, classified under the head 'Profits for Eternity'- (Inside sources)].
3. Misbah ul Haq has 5 runs to get in the last 4 balls of the penultimate over. Very doable like the 1 run required off 2 balls in the previous India-Pak showdown. Instead, Pakistan 152 all out.
4. Irfan Pathan deals a heavy match-winning blow, finishing with 3-16 and clinching Man of the Match, and Rudra Pratap impresses as always with a smart 3-26.
5. Shahid Afridi gets Player of the Tournament for his 12 wickets and brilliant all-round play during the entire T20.
6. Underrated Gautam Gambhir never gets more than a cursory mention for his very brilliant top-of-the-innings score of 75 runs at a strike rate of 139.
7. Umar Gul bowls another dream spell as he has been doing throughout the tournament, and he picks up 3 wickets for 28, making him the highest wicket-taker of the T20s.
8. Mohd Hafeez drops Rohit Sharma at long-on on ball 19.2 of the Indian innings. The ball pops out of the boundary giving India 6 more to their total.
9. India get 6 more, and in the end India win by 5 too many? [Aaargh. The hurt....]
10. Afridi throws away his wicket in the 12th over and Pakistan stand at 77-6. It all seems over for the Green Men.
11. Misbah ul Haq, my hero for the tournament, steps in again with a Herculean 43 and pulls Pakistan to the brink of victory, including four very special 6es in the death overs.
12. Sohail Tanveer also chips in with 2 brilliant 6es in Sreesanth's over. He finishes with a worthy 12 off 4 balls. Well done, lad.
13. Ball 19.3 of the Paki innings. 5 runs to win, 4 balls in hand. Misbah plays 'that shot', scooped up backwards over the wicketkeeper hoping to fly by the fielder at shortish fine-leg, but NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!
It's all over.....
[Actually it started as "YESSSS!!!! YESS! YES!!!!! Whaaaaaa...? Who's that? Wha...? NOOO... NOOOOO... NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"]

The beforeMATHS:
1. 10 dosas to Robin Uthappa courtesy Ravi Shastri. Recreated by SamGoose, Boomsa and a Sharmon Legend.
2. Yuvi sits pretty on INR 1 crore after his magic six sixes in one over against England.
3. Approximate betting on the India-Pakistan finals: INR 1500 crore. In India alone.
4. Betting odds: Illegal betting space - India odds on favorites to win at 1:1.55, Pakistan close on heels at 1:1.80. Legal betting space, Bet365, offers odds of 1:80 for India, and 1:90 for a Paki win. Skybet is more conservative with the same rate for both.
5. Wanderers Stadium has a sellout crowd of 30,000 plus.
6. Hearts broken worldwide: 165 million [primarily Pakistani hearts, but other hearts like mine are included here too.]
7. Hearts filled to bursting with elation: 1 billion [primarily Indian hearts, but other hearts worldwide too beat for the Men in Blue.]
8. Losers in India and Pakistan, or Indians and Pakis worldwide who didn't care which way the match would swing: 234 [Including the scientists in Antarctica].

Here's a short post-match interview of some very miserable Pak fans. The gentleman is a Suhail Qasim Malik and the lady is a Nida Haji. Interview by this very saddened writer.



Also, at the end of all things, I am very fond of MS Dhoni who has turned out to be a stellar captain of the young Indian side. [On an aesthetic note: It certainly helped that he took the trouble to wax/shave, and was in prime physical condition since he was letting go of his shirt. Nice biceps, Milkman.]

Final note: Am glad I watched the match in the confines of my own home with like-minded SPORT-LOVERS, because I know this is the only way I could watch the game objectively without being irritated or disturbed. I say objectively, in spite of supporting Pakistan yesterday, because that is how we have been raised to watch and play sports. If someone plays a good stroke, it doesn't matter what side they're on, we'll be applauding them. Indian, Pakistani, Arab, Israeli, American, Aussie doesn't enter into the equation. I hate the Aussie team in totum but I know a good shot when I see it, and I'll know to clap for Gilchrist, PONTING EVEN, if he plays a sweet shot.
It has happened so often that a good game has been spoilt for me by fanatics [and not fans], idiots shouting obscenities, cheering blindly for their own side, not appreciating any move by the opposition, drowning out commentary with their uneducated opining or arguing loudly with expert opinion based on their overheated sentiments... But what really bothers me most of all is obscenities. I don't like potty-mouths around when watching sports. It's a different ball-game, as it were. Don't sully it with $##$@!!!

Thanks to Shro for being my shoulder to cry on late last night when I called her for late-night-emotional-support dinner meals. The original plan was for me to pick her up and drive to Ulsoor Lake where I would take the final plunge, with suitable accessories as rocks, an anvil and strong rope. And Shro would then take the car back home. Boomsa was to collect my remains the next morning.
As it turned out, this did not happen. We went to KFC instead.

Very cute scenes on the roads of Bangalore after the victory: Fans of all ages took to the streets brandishing the Indian flag, stopping cars to give high-fives, yelling and cheering ecstatically all over the city, sharing unadulterated joy with complete strangers on the roads and not misbehaving at all. When my car was stopped, I was treated with great deference and joy after it was noted that I was a lady. Yay. I love that we don't have hooliganism here, for the most part.

"Hazaaron khwaahishein aisi ki har khwaahish pe dum nikle;
Bahut nikle mere armaan, lekin phir bhi kam nikle."
-Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib
[What I was crooning myself to sleep with last night.]