What song shall I sing of you?

All these days, after every win that India would slam, I would be eagerly waiting for the next morning editions to arrive where the entire first page would talk of the battle won, with a large flashy picture of the super XI and larger than life narration of the entire event garnered with stories of the big men and the not so big men and women and sometimes children too. These people put their little resources, emotions even life at stake to watch their favorite team win and celebrate the trophy they bring home. Unfortunately this year, those wonderful editions would not come to me namely, the Anandabazar Patrika, the Bartomaan, the Ganoshokti, The Statesman, The Telegraph and many nameless others. They all made me dream and delve in a psychedelic mysticism broken by a seemingly never ending bout of singing, dancing and heralding sportsmanship and nationalism with more often nameless faces than named and spurts of passionate discussions on the sport.

Guess staying away from one's homeland has many prices to pay and these come very handy.Yet the spirit seems unrelenting and I'm quite decided to give myself the story for this time where facts would carefully be alloyed with fiction to quench the thirst I've been rearing since the time I've been introduced to cricket.The stories of World Cup win 1983 partly read and heard about from various sources have intensified that.

So here goes my story:

It was one in the afternoon and there was an air of nervous aggression in the Indian dressing room, as Tendulkar sat chipping his nails down, Bhajji sending out his prayers to his Guruji, Sreesanth ringing his hair up, Kohli and Yuvraj talking balls, Dhoni sinking into the game strategies with occassional trunk twisting and stretches, Munaf rolled a ball in his hand, squatting in a corner as Gambhir set his thoughts carefully on his nose and his hands gently covered them.Sehwag, Zaheer and Raina stood with parted legs, passing balls and flexing muscles to wreak out their nervous energy.Bottles of chilled water and juices kept circulating as Kirsten cajoled around with each of them wishing luck and a great game. Occassionally there were interludes of humour, sarcasm and even neat swearing to summon the best of themselves for the day's battle.

...and then it was time for the toss when Sangakkara's stars decided to flicker real bright before dissappearing behind a thick snuff.The Lankans were determined to bat if they won the toss and our Vanar sena in blue seemed to have made up their mind about just one little thing- "to win, no matter what." A dream reared by all eleven in different shapes and sizes seeking body from Gary's eye for detail, Eric's way of getting the ball to talk and Paddy's directions of locking in a healthy mind in a healthy body. It started showing right from the first bowling, that this time Team India would be a tough nut yet the Sri Lankans would not let them get away easy. Inspite of slow runs in the first fifteen overs,some initial quick wicket falls, Jayawardena managed an unvanquished century with a good partnership with Samaraweera, Kulasekara and even Perera but history chose to be written differently this time. The chasing team cut in, the captain of the winning team, Dhoni made a man of the match with his timely smashing hits and some brilliant fielding plus overall game strategising. This man smiles and thanks his stars for his wins in the T20 World Cup and the World Cup Cricket 2011 that seemed some drops of humility to tone down his brags about certain key changes in the team that might have appeared indecisive before. Gambhir had an unfortunate knock off at 97. However his partnership with Kohli put roots to Indian innings of batting after two key players like Sehwag and Tendulkar lost their wickets pretty early.
Yuvraj later joined in to make India win by six wickets. The bowling of Sri Lanka seemed really strong and India tried keeping pace with them and managed fairly well. India came across outstanding in its fielding- quite unusual. They seemed tighter than the Sri Lankan team who have been known to be good there. The last six that Dhoni flicked up in the air to finish the match added a lot of drama to the already picturesque match...and then the screams and cheers of winning coupled with brilliant fireworks, news bytes, flashing cameras, flying flags all seemed very active.
Yuvraj was declared Man of the series and he and young cricketers like Kohli and Gambhir dedicated their win to Tendulkar- The God of Indian cricket who's waited twenty-five long years to kiss this golden cup. As these proud men in blue posed with their trophy drenched in champagne before the entire world media, there were honks of hundreds and thousands of cars blowing up in the roads, people took turns to sing,exchange greetings , dance with many unknown faces celebrating the historic victory. Bookies got busy distributing cash, fanatic fans from all parts of the world tried reaching Wankhade stadium or atleast the city Mumbai for its celebrations, liquor started pouring, processions to the tune of a ceremonius carnival could be seen all around as magic set in.A man in his mid-sixties shed tears like a child. He otherwise is known to be quite insensitive to all these. A son managed to speak to his father after six long years. What could be better than the country winning its 28 years later world cup to break the ice that stood between them. A paralysed lady regained her senses in her right hand as the added rush of adrenalin after the win drove her to raise her hands along with billions of other fans and many more miracles followed all around. This night was meant to "be a good night".

This story of mine shall always remain with me as an evidence of what a night it has been and an inspiration to weave in more such brilliant nights in the days to come.