They Came, They Saw, They Conquered...

Gangs & Jaya
By Gaurang - 30 Sep '02
September 30 2002

ICC Champions Trophy 2002, aka Mini Cricket World Cup, should have gone to India. But rain intervened twice, and flawed ICC rules for this tournament prevented India from putting the finishing touches on a well-deserved win in the final.

Any objective observer would have said that in both versions of the ICC Champions Trophy Final, Sunday's and Monday's, India held the UPPER hand... and were clearly MORE likely to win. The relief and HUGE smile on Jayasurya's face and the grim look and wry smile on Ganguly's face when the trophy was finally awarded jointly told the true story. Lanka had dodged two bullets and been rewarded with a share of the trophy, while India had bowled and fielded its heart out and were denied what was rightfully theirs... No wonder, Saurav let Sanath keep the trinket of a trophy, for Sanath was clearly the more grateful for having it...

What is more India, except for a brief period when they faced elimination against South Africa in the semifinals, held the upper hand throughout the tournament...

Additionally India were the spark of excitement in an otherwise BORING tournament. All their matches were VERY well attended and each was EXCITING in its own right. They were truly the HEART of the tournament. And the most heartening thing was that the excitement was provided in all departments of the game. Kaif, Dravid, Sehwag, Ganguly and Yuvraj with the bat; Zaheer, Harbhajan, and Sehwag with the ball; Kaif, Yuvraj, Mongia with ground fielding; Yuvraj, Laxman, Mongia, Harbhajan, Agarkar and Kaif with spectacular catching, and last but not least Ganguly with forceful, thoughtful and successful captaincy.

Sri Lanka naturally had excellent support of their home fans, but their games were all BORING. They humbled their opponents with ease. That Holland would never provide a fight was a given, but the way they eased past Pakistan who with that loss were virtually eliminated on the FIRST day of the tournament, and then CRUSHED the Australians in the semifinals was amazing, and showed a team that clearly cherished HOME conditions much more than the alien conditions of England where they were comprehensively beaten by both England and India. The return of a fully fit Muralitharan and rejuvinated Arvinda de Silva may have had something to do with it as well.

Yet these same Sri Lankans looked much LESS assured against the Indians despite winning the toss in crucial back to back day night finals against India. It speaks volumes of the threat posed by India both as a batting side, but even more imporatantly as a FIELDING side that can now EXERT immense pressure on the opponents evenwith a bowling attack that was less than top class, except for a couple of key bowlers...

Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh however were clearly top class. Zaheer has been a complete REVALATION. After bowling NON-STOP since the begining of the West Indies tour nearly 8 months ago, he has shown IMMENSE fitness, and AMAZING fight. He can safely be termed as the best pace bowler of the tournament. His bowling at the death, was as magnificent a piece of cricket as the blazing fireworks provided by Sehwag and Ganguly at the top of the order.

Harbhajan Singh after a poor first game against Zimbabwe, where he seemed bent on containment, has also had an excellent tournament. Once he decided to be more attacking, as suits his temprament and method, he was 1 8b0 devastating as well.

The surprise packet and the PLAYER of the Tournament was undoubtedly Virender Sehwag. He batted with an abandon and freedom that made it look like he was batting on different pitches than the rest of the batsmen in the tournament, pitches that seemed fast, bouncy and true. But once he took the ball, he showed the TRUE character of the pitches, slow, low and conducive to turn. His off-breaks put the BRAKES on England in the key league game, on the South Africans in the semifinals, and on the Lankans twice in the finals.

After a gruelling ten months of cricket on the road, that saw the Indian Team come, see, and conquer in far flung places such as Port of Spain, Antigua, London, Leeds and Colombo, the team can now play at home for a while.

The opposition are also a none too formidable West Indies outfit, who are making their first appearance in India after eight years. The Indian team deserves a well earned breather, during this festive holiday season. But knowing the fire that burns within the belly of the team's leader, the breather will only mean that the embers are preserved so that they can once again burst into flames in a blazing inferno when the team again leaves Indian soil.