England had a chance to finish the match in style, but unfortunately; they could manage only a tie. Graeme Swann missed a chance to do the trick at the last ball what Aamir Khan had done in Indian movie "Lagaan". Unlike in the movie where Bhuvan (Aamir Khan) required to hit six to win the match, Graeme Swann needed only 2 runs.
1 run off last ball means the match ended in a historic tie. What a match it was!! The game shifted from one team to another, giving an equal chance for both to win, but eventually, no one won.
1 run off last ball means the match ended in a historic tie. What a match it was!! The game shifted from one team to another, giving an equal chance for both to win, but eventually, no one won.
Cricket has become fast; may be this is the effect of T20 format, which I guess is good for the game. There was a time when any score above 280-300 was a winning score, and now, 350-400 is also achievable. South Africa made the highest successful chase of 435 against Australia in 2006. That's the first time any team crossed 400 runs in 50 overs game, but the record only lasted for another 50 overs when South Africa successfully achieved the winning total. India would have cherished getting the successive score of 300+ in this world cup, but without the disciplined bowling attack, getting to the landmark of becoming champion is pretty hard.
Yet another century by master blaster Sachin Tendulkar went in vain. Scoring a hundred is not an achievement for Tendulkar any more. He gets century in every second match. People have lot more expectation from him, something big, like world cup. Sachin has been trump card for India in every world cup, but unfortunately, this trump card never show off at the right moment. Sachin's haters might have been accusing him for not scoring 1 more run that could have changed the result of the match. May be if Sachin had scored 121 runs, he would have considered a match winner. But, bad luck little master.
I've never seen Andrew Strauss so dominating before. He had charged to all Indian bowlers, whether it was pace or spin bowling, and never let the run rate went high. He made the likes of Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh look ordinary. Cosmic Cricket will consider this inning as his best because this came at the right time and at right attitude. His inning was also special because it was a captain's knock that will boost the confidence among his peers for the upcoming matches.
To sum up, this tie has rejuvenated the world cup. As all others world cup matches played so far were more or less one-sided, this match never had an unanimous winner till the last ball of the match. Long live cricket.
