As a rule, I land up supporting the Underdog. And this was no exception - Rajasthan Royals was defninitely the poorest team, with no coach and the only stars to boast of being Shane Warne battling personal problems and looking for redemption, and Graeme Smith.
They had no coach, no Icon as the Indian captain, no real crowd support, no big budgets for advertising and marketing, in fact, they had nothing to lose. Thats what the had going for them.
I LOVED the team spirit, the sheer determination, and never say die attitude that the team displayed. Had they lost yesterday, they had won our hearts anyway...really. Had we even heard of a Swapnil Asnodkar before this? This little guy, all of five foot somethign has held his nerves and undauntedly hit the best of the best for big overs. Niraj Jadeja, who looks more like he ought to be chilling at Barista with his teeny bopper friends had a MAGNIFICENT 69 run (6th wicket) parternship which won them a crucial match.
Each player came into his own in this team, each player found a niche and was supported by his team mates in executing it best. Words fail me in trying to express how proud I feel about a team full of youngsters who have shown so much maturity, so much calm and defeated the 'Icons' of this game - None of our four Icons Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid or Sehwag made their mark, faltering in strategy, teamwork, and at times in form altogether. With all the advantages these teams had, they went nowhere.
Have developed new found respect for Shane Warne...images of him patting Shane Watsons back after he (Watson) gave an over of 25 runs and telling him its ok, talking encouragingly to each player (some of whom dont even understand English very well), praising the 'young Swapnil' and Yusuf and the others, giving them the deserved credit, and taking very litle himself, will not leave me for a long time to come.
All in all, Im a little worried about what Im gonna do with all the excitiement and energy Ive managed to build up in the last 45 days. Phew.
5 comments:
I was there! And it was easily the most boring match I'd ever seen in a stadium (and I've seen plenty) till the last ten overs. 60,000 people who didn't know whom to support and how much. Tsk.
Agree about Warne, he was incredible. And those of us who follow Ranji trophy news sort of had heard of Asnodkar but since Goa is in the Plate League (unlike Bombay, Bengal, Punjab etc which are in the Elite league) you don't see much of them in the news.
And psst: It's Niraj Patel and Ravindra Jadeja, not a mishmash of the two :P
I saw this post coming a long time ago :)
I'm just super-glad I remembered to stream this over the Internet, and hook it up to my TV ! Made for brilliant Sunday morning viewing !
Ad - At work the other day, one of my colleagues was telling me that he supported KKR then Royals but in the finals figurde he might as well have an Indian captain win, so switched sides!! and a bunch of others agreed!
But other than that how could you find it boring?!! i thought the light and sound show was FANTASTIC. Shamita and Dia's performance looked terrible i thought and was completely unnecessary.
and err :S must confess i mess up those names in conversation as well. lol.
@ Jack - This was redemption. well and truly deserved!
Trust me, it is far better on TV when the crowd is thandaa. The opening show looked crap from the stands but much better on the screens inside the stadium - it was almost like it had been shot elsewhere and telecast.
The match was boring too - keep in mind you have commentators generating hype throughout the match. Out there it was very bleh. No anticipation, no disappointment till the last ten overs.
I was sort-of forced into supporting the Chennai side because a good friend's girlfriend was doing the same (being from Chennai herself). Meh.
i dont know why i find that hard to believe! :)
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