India
had entered the ICC World T20 tournament as favourites. They were playing in
their own backyard and seemed invincible. From the cricket pundits to the fans
all were confident that India would win the World Cup again and bring back the
memories of 2007.
They
did not have the best of the starts to the tournament loosing badly to the Kiwis
in their opener. However, they roar back into form beating the arch rivals
Pakistan at the Eden Gardens and stamped their authority in the tournament. The
road was laid out for the Men in Blue they had to beat to Bangladesh and
Australia successively to seal the berth for the semi-final.
Bangladesh,
the perennial underdogs for the tournament were dubbed as an easy prey for the
Indian team. But seemed liked everybody spoke to soon. India won the match
against Bangladesh off the last ball on the back of brilliant run-out by
Captain Cool. The Men in Blue ‘just’ managed to cross the finished line and
everybody heaved a sigh of relief.
But
their virtual quarter-final match was set up against the mighty Australians.
There was no scope for error when the Indians met the Kangaroos. The Indian
team knew they could not commit the same mistake they had against the Bangladeshi
team and one man stood up and took complete responsibility for guiding India to
the semi-final-Virat Kohli. He single-handedly demolished their bowling attack
and cemented the Men in Blue’s position in the semi-final.
The
Indian team was now to meet the mighty Caribbean’s at the Wankhede Stadium,
Mumbai. Nobody has till date forgotten the winning-six that was hit by the
captain MS Dhoni, to guide India to its World Cup victory against Sri Lanka at
this particular stadium and hopes were high that we would see a repeat of something
similar. But if
always what the fans wished had become a reality then India would have been an
invincible side today. Having lost the toss, India was put into bat first,
which proved to be too costly for the home side. India started slowly however
soon they shifted from the first gear to the second gear. Rahane playing his
first match of the tournament along with Rohit Sharma gave a steady start to
the team and after Sharma’s departure Kohli took charge of the situation and
took the game away from the bowlers. India finished at 192/2. But experts
believed that the Indian team were 10-15 runs short as the dew factor will come
into picture later in the game and Wankhede being a batting paradise would not
be an easy sale for the Indian team.
When
the bowlers came in to finish the job, it felt India will walk away with the
victory and they smelled their first success as well after they strangulated
the mighty Gayle force for just five runs. But that was a very small triumph in
the bigger context of the match. Simmons and Samuels-the former playing the
first match of the tournament replacing the injured Fletcher and the latter not
in the best of his form bought a little stability to the score, but it was Charles
who came into bat along with Simmons who almost took the match away from the
Indian team. The spinners were going for runs and the fast bowlers were not
sticking to their plan. The runs could not be arrested and Simmons, a cat who
has nine lives survived throughout the game and then along with Russell sealed
the deal for the West Indies. India's dreams of a World Twenty20 title on home
soil were shattered after the West Indies stunned the hosts by seven wickets to
reach the final. The Windies broke a million hearts and marched ahead to
Kolkata to set up a clash with the Englishmen for a cracker of a match, which
the former won in a last over thriller securing this year’s World Cup.
The
journey of the Indian team ended in the semi-final but looking back the only positive
that emerged from the entire tournament was the batting prowess of Virat Kohli,
which further cemented the fact that he is indeed hit his purple patch, where
his form is concerned and though India were all along tagged as eternal
favourites they never performed like CHAMPIONS!!!
