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Cricket World Cup

India are world champions once again!

For the first time in history India entered the tournament as favourites, with the expectations of well over a billion supporters on their shoulders. If any captain could handle this immense pressure, it would surely be M.S.Dhoni. Just recently Sachin Tendulkar announced that he felt Dhoni is the best captain ever to lead India, a huge statement from a huge player.

India was not at its destructive best from the start, however. We had to fight for a tie against England, a match we really should have won and in the group stages our bowling and fielding was average. Our strength has always been our batting and with Yuvraj Singh hitting form and Tendulkar continuing to pile on century upon century we entered the quarter-finals against previous world cup holder's Australia.

Ponting scored a classy and determined 104, but India chased down their 260 with ease. India fielded excellently and proved that we are a real team, with contributions down the line including 50s from Tendulkar, Gambhir and Yuvi, and an important 34 from Raina.

India marched into the semis against rivals Pakistan in what was being described as a match bigger than the world cup final! Pakistan made the mistake of giving Sachin more than one chance as he scored 85 to help India to what seemed a challenging score giving the nature of the pitch. Once again India proved that it is a complete team which does not rely on one or two individuals as the wickets were shared evenly among 5 bowlers. As Pakistan fell 29 runs short India found themselves facing a tough final against the Sri Lankans.

Zaheer is a legend, let's not lie, but even he couldn't stop Sri Lanka posting a highly competitive total. When we lost Sehwag and Tendulkar in quick succession, it seemed as if the dream was going to be ended soon.

Gambhir battled on though and seemed in fluent touch. Kohli seemed settled but when he was dismissed by Dilshan, nearly everyone expected the in-form Yuvraj to step out to the crease. Dhoni had other ideas. Instead of sitting in the dressing room, he decided to take matters into his own hands and see his country home. He and Gambhir soaked up the pressure in the middle overs, and took India closer to the finishing line. Gambhir fell before completing what would be a match-winning century, but Yuvraj and Dhoni finished off the chase in fine style.

As Dhoni demolished the ball into the crowd an entire nation erupted as India became world champions for the first time since 1983!!!!!!!!!!

So thus ends the India is awesome speech. Get out some mithai, wave the Indian flag around, and just generally be proud to be Indian :)

Rohan