Hurrah!!!

I can still feel the surge of joy running through my veins, thanks to a real thriller of a match, a dazzling performance by Team India, keeping their nerves till the very last minute to snatch a nail-biting victory from the very jaws of the England team. The Indian Cricket team has been notoriously infamous for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in the past, but today was a cracker of a day (if only one could digest the dazzling pyrotechniques by all-rounder Dmitri Mascarenhas who smashed five sixes off the last over bowled by Yuvraj Singh)

A splendid batting performance by Owais Shah (107 not out), aided by valuable knocks from Bell (49), Pietersen (53) and Wright (50), powered by a blitzkrieg batting from Mascarenhas (36) took the tally well past 300.

Needing a daunting 317 for victory, a perfect start from openers Sachin (94) and Ganguly (53), gritty knocks from Gambhir (47), Dhoni (35), and Uthappa (47 not out) sealed victory for India. Kudos to Uthappa for keeping his cool and guiding the team to victory.

After a while, I was quite fortunate enough to have a glimpse of the match today. It's been raining solidly, almost non-stop from evening. I was on the way to refill my phone card, when my attention shifted on to a large group of bystanders undaunted by the merciless rain and thunder lightening, staring at a huge plasma screen covering the match, courtesy some consumer goods shop. Sans an umbrella, aware of being completely drenched in the downpour, and astraphobic (ahem... depends on the intensity of the thunder.. folks), I was ready to bite the bullet and catch up with the match (the lack of an idiotic box at my place sums it all). I turned around to find a few of them intensely glued to the set nail-biting, a few of them hair plucking, but towards the end, it was nice to watch the jubilant crowd punching their fist in the air, some dancing. Amidst celebrations of victory in the crowd, I could figure out this very familiar green-colored Bolero jeep aka Chennai Patrol Police ordering the crowd to disperse.

Hardly a minute later, not a soul around on the road, including the one sitting right at this moment blogging. Chances of ending up with a sore throat and catching a cold by tomorrow are high, but it was worth it. Game on India.... spread the same magic on Saturday...