The world in india’s pocket

PTI

Bridgetown (Barbados), June 29

It did not matter if you were a giant of the game. You were allowed to have tears in your eyes, you were allowed to be taken over by a flood of emotions.

I tried to keep calm. We play the sport for this, I am really over the moon, my son is here, family is here, we’ve been working really hard towards this, no better feeling than that. We play sport for the big stages. On the big day, you have to give more, throughout the tournament I felt very clear and calm. — Jasprit Bumrah, Player of the Tournament

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Hard to sum up what we’ve been through in last three-four years. A lot behind the scenes, not what we did today, it’s what we did before. A lot of high-pressure games, and we’ve been on the wrong side of it. — Rohit Sharma, India Skipper

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One day you feel you can’t get a run, then things happen. God is great, and I got the job done for the team on the day it mattered. Now or never, last T20 for India, wanted to make the most of it. — Virat Kohli, Player of the Match

There were tears of ecstasy and there were tears of dejection: That’s what a victory and a defeat in a match that matters the most brings out.

There were tears and hugs all around. Hugs for celebrations and for commiserations too. Rohit Sharma, Mohammed Siraj, Quinton de Kock, Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, Rahul Dravid, David Miller — all had tears in their eyes but each one of them had a different story attached to the emotion.

Rohit lay prostrate on the Kensington Oval ground, perhaps thanking for the prayers answered and hard work of years yielding the result so desperately sought.

He had lost two World Cup finals and was close to losing another high-pressure game but this time he crossed the line along with a bunch of players he believes in. Finally the Indian skipper had his moment.

And finally, the India coach had his moment under the sun. He could not win a World Cup as a player but on the last day of his assignment as India coach, Dravid had a World Cup trophy to lay his hands on. It meant the world to him. Someone who has been a master at hiding his emotions all these years allowed himself to be swept by the emotions — emotions of victory and relief. He was pumping his fist in the air and shouting ‘come on!’ It was a rare sight to watch.

Pandya has gone through a lot in his personal and professional life in the last few months. Being booed by the fans for replacing the much-loved Rohit as Mumbai Indians skipper, Pandya had copped a lot of unfair flak and ire of the fans. Then there were unconfirmed reports of his marriage falling apart. When he was asked to defend 16 runs in the last over, he could have walked out either a hero or a villain.

It was a time to win back his fans and he did that with aplomb. It was just natural that he could not stop his eyes from pouring out those sentiments.

In complete contrast, Miller hung his head while resting his arms on the billboards on the fence. He could have steered his side to the greatest victory in South Africa’s cricket history but his shot off Pandya off the first ball of the last over, soaring high, was halted by a SKY (Suryakumar Yadav) special on the boundary ropes.

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