What an emotional moment it was !!
April 2nd 2011 is a date which will go down in history. Most people today, either had not seen the '83 world cup win or were too young to remember it. But this moment is something everyone will remember for the rest of their lives.
Just imagine, a stiff target and Sachin and Sehwag get out!! Many people would have switched off their TV sets and others gone into mourning. In the past, in such a situation, our chances of winning would be almost zero.
But yesterday, the unbelievable happened - our boys pulled the match around, with none other than Dhoni leading from the front. There was severe flak directed at Dhoni after his Sreesanth decision, but inspite of not being in form, he decided to come in and played the innings of his life. And of course, his knock would have been in vain, had not Gambhir built a very important partnership with Kohli!
It was really emotional to see Yuvraj and Bhajji breaking down and crying. The celebrations all over the country with celebrities joining in was amazing. Seeing the sphinx-like Sonia Gandhi dancing on the streets was just unbelievable. And after such a long career, Sachin finally managed to achieve the ultimate.
This world cup final was probably the best ever final match played. Even at the end, Malinga seemed to be ready to create trouble, but we managed to pull off a historic win. Amazing match and great series.
Is this a greater win than 1983? A debatable question, both wins are historic, so it would be wrong to compare. But this win is special because we first crushed the arrogance of the Aussies, defeated our arch rival and won a close final against the second best team. And the team has a good reward for this - 1 crore per person from BCCI.
So is Dhoni the greatest ever Indian captain? My answer - no doubt about it!! Dhoni has won two international tournaments T20 and World Cup. He has propelled our team to Number 1 ranking in both test and one day. No doubt, he overtakes Ganguly and Kapil to be the greatest captain ever.
It is a win we will savour for years to come and a day which we will talk about to our grandchildren.
Do share your feelings and how memorable this win was for you.
Happy celebrations :)
PS : Edited to include Gambhir and Kohli's important contribution :)