The Journey That Is

My Mom insisted i studied hard !! If i didn i was good enough for nothing !! My manager still thinks that way !! But there's always a don care attitude wen it comes to cricket !!

Rewind life a decade !! Mid March 2001 !! Amidst all the chaos of my upcoming 10th Public exams , there was an epic battle fought !! For one it was the "FINAL FRONTIER" !! For Other it was just about a series needed to lift the spirit of the whole nation that had not recovered from Match Fixing Scandals !!

World Record 16 wins in a row !! Opposition team unable to pick 11 good players !! Steve waugh could have thought Final Frontier was conquered afterall !! Team India had other plans !! They had the Captain who till date is undoubtedly India's best !! Young guns looking forward to shape up their careers !! They had the grit , guts , willpower , hardwork !! But it wasnt enough !! Atleast for the first three days one thought so !!

For what India are today in terms of test cricket , one could safely bet this is where the journey did begin !!

Its Simple !! U just cant take out Mar 14th and 15th from Indian Cricket History !!

Zaheer Khan n Harbhajan Singh were no compulsory starters then which they are today !! Laxman had just one hundred then in a start stop career over 5 years !! Not surprisingly the one was against Australia !! Yet u could feel for the guy for not making a world cup squad !! U never know , we played the finals in 2003 against aussies !!

Laxman ever since then has saved his best performances for aussies !! He's been the last resort for Team India under crisis !! Its a great compliment to have when a captain comes to say "The Match is never lost if Laxman is still in" !!

what people fail to remember is when a partnership goes unbroken for a day , it means person at neither end got out !! We naturally tend to forget the person at other end , THE WALL !! So selfless he kept wickets for a considerable period of time to make a balance the team needed !!

Whole of 90's opponents had one formula !! Get Sachin Out early n Win the Game !! It changed !!

From then except one series against aussies ( 2004 , The Actual Final Frontier ) Team India went onto final test of every series with either a Series Win or Draw insight !! We Started to win Away !! Looked Unbeatable at home !!

India are now the No 1 ranked Team in test cricket !! We carry forward the brand image of cricket's oldest format !! N it all started a decade back !!

This win erased the 90's formula for opponents !!
This win made us realize who the best captain of the millennium was !!

Above all,

This win brought the lost fans back !!



Scorecard Here : http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63920.html

I would like to end the article with a famous Tamil Film Dialouge from Thevar Magan (Aana Vedhai – Nan potadhu. Idellam ena perumaya, kadamai) !! The Seed was sown a decade back n its yielding fruits now !!