Dhoni vs Rohit and 1983, 2007, 2011 and 2024

 A cricket crazy nation saw glory 4 times in 42 years and in my life time I can recount all these experiences and question of  where was I and what victory meant each time. 

1983 I was 21 a medical student and in the licence permit Raj of Indira Gandhi a time of economic scarcity. Fortunate enough to be a creature of privilege and thanks to my parents entrepreneurial spirit of running a nascent Cable TV business, we had Colour Television in our house mostly imported National TV. The closed economy of India and restrictions meant that we lived with a mindset of scarcity. The cricket of the sixties was one of despair and defeat with the rare moments of brilliance and victory. This transformed a bit in the seventies on the back of some individual brilliance and the confluence of the technically sound copy book opening batsman Sunil Gavaskar, experienced Dilip Sardesai and brilliant wristy G. R. Vishwanath  and a group of 3-4 excellent spin bowlers led by  Bishen Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, Srinivas Venkataraghavan and Bhagwat Chandrashekar. These were backed by brilliant fielders like Eknath Solkar, Syed AbidAli, Keeper Farokh Engineer and Ajit Wadekar who was the lucky captain. These guys led India to Test series victories in the Carribeans and England against formidable sides in 1971. Even so at age 10 we followed cricket on radio and the written press. K. N. Prabhu articles in Times and Anant Setalvad and Suresh Saraiya were part of the memories of the day. We had black and white newsreel reports. Even though we knew how to win we were part of the same template of avoiding defeat and trying to draw test matches and churn spinning wickets in Chennai and Kolkatta. India had no fast bowlers and were relative tigers at home but were whipping boys on foreign shores except for a few occasions when the great Gavaskar held one end and got a draw which in itself was a victory. India didn’t care about one day cricket and the spinners were belted and both the world cups in 1975 and 1979 were painful memories to be forgotten. But in this atmosphere a rustic Haryanvi fast bowler came on the scene to challenge the Indian standard formula of spinning tracks. He was crude, non English speaking elite and his arrival opened the gates for talent from small towns. Weather by strategy or plain luck a bunch of all rounders bits and pieces cricketers with a few maverick swashbuckling batters came together and against all odds we won the 1983 World Cup. The campaign was followed by us amidst ups and downs and since India was not a team which was a crowd puller, all it’s games were not covered and since destiny had something special written Kapil Dev played a memorable innings against lowly ranked Zimbabwe. After beating top teams like the West Indies and Australia in the first phase of the tournament, this innings which pulled India from the brink of elimination to enter the semi finals against England. It was the home team a redoubtable foe and expected to win with ease. India had 4 frontline bowlers Kapil Dev, Balwinder Sandhu, Roger Binny and Madan Lal with two guys Mohinder Amarnath and Kirti Azad made up the fifth bowler the so called weak link. In the semi final at Old Trafford India’s unlucky ground England were restricted to 210 in 60 overs. This was because a routine batting was throttled by our 5 th bowling combination who instead of bowling 12 overs bowled 24 on the trot for less than 60 runs accounting for 4 wickets including 2 runouts. India chased these down with ease although it was a tense battle the likes of Yashpal Sharma and Sandeep Patil made short work of an English attack. Suddenly, India was in the finals of a World Cup where nobody had ever given him a chance. So much so that the BCCI had to purchase and reschedule the tickets and television channels, DoorDarshan had to negotiate with BBC for broadcasting rights. I remember all of us, my friends gathering in our house, making a big noise and trying to win the World Cup. The first half of the match at Lords was a disaster. The Indian batsmen were all at sea I had no idea about how to negotiate this fantastic four fast bowling attack The few blows landed by K. Srikanth  and some contributions by Mohinder Amarnath and Sandeep Patil meant we had so called runs on the board 183 was meager and we were doomed to defeat. About the second half of the game our bowling, Gordon Greenidge was deceived by a inswinger from Balvinder Sandhu which he shoulder armed to and was bowled. Out came Vivian Richards with his swagger and chewing gum and he was about to finish the game in a hurry. But then we had a period where Doordarshan had a an hours game blank and in that time suddenly West Indies were 3 down for less than 60 and Vivian Richards was caught by Kapil Dev off Madan Lal to turn the game. Mohinder Amarnath as a bowler i recollect was slow medium fast but accurate inducing mistakes. Today a slow motion replay of Bumrah will be faster real time Amarnath. An over confident West Indies team collapsed for a total of 140 and India won its first world title and became a team who from also rans would be regular semi finalists and then came to regular so near yet so far days. !987 Semi final loss to England in Mumbai. 1992 we did not do well but beat Pakistan eventual winners. 1996 we lost to Sri Lanka in the semi finals. We were in the finals in South Africa but despite India becoming a powerful cricketing team our two world cups came under an conic leader M. S. Dhoni. 

The first T20 World cup threw up results which was entirely unexpected. In 2007, the game was unknown and the tactics and everything about it was unknown. The cricket stars of India of he time, Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman thought that this was a form of cricket not worthy of their skills or temperament and they decided to ignore it altogether. India by sheer numbers and popularity of the game was setting the cash registers of world cricket ringing seemed always unwilling to take to new innovations in cricket. In one day cricket in 1975 India was one on the lowest ranked one day outfit with little experience. So T20 cricket was not on the popular sports radar of Indian cricket. A squad of youngsters along with a few experienced cricketers mainly all rounders were sent to South Africa to have fun. 

The exuberance of youth the boldness of a team with uncluttered fearless minds and the astute leadership of an unknown leader and a new untried coach created a magical result which fired the imagination of the country. The selection of that team happened by fortune or happenstance and the results were astounding. The credit of that win went mainly to Dhoni who had plans for every eventuality and who in a tied India Pakistan used the untried bowlers for super over where to everyone's surprise non regular bowlers who had practiced for this eventuality were accurate as against the regular skillful bowlers of the Pakistani team. I was not watching the full final as it was on a working day and we ran from clinic to home to catch the victory  on time with a Sreesanth catch which was the winning moment against an obdurate Misbah ul Haq taking on a dibbly dobbly Joginder Singh who faded away after that day. 

Come 2011 India on home ground were favorites but had their ups and downs lost a few close games in the tournament. We tied with England and lost to South Africa but Yuvraj singh as all rounder had a great tournament. India's win against Australia in the quarter finals where despite the Ponting hundred India won a close game closed by Yuvraj and Suresh Raina after good start by Tendulkar and Gambhir. Dhoni leadership especially his captaincy use of Yuvraj as a bowling option and horses for courses approach use of different combinations and getting the tactical measure of his rivals was truly great. The stars in the team were known to have a muddled mind in knock out matches and he knew how to get them to perform. $ years after shepherding a young team of rookies, he had become a leader who had the calmest of heads and excellent match situation awareness. He could do the unexpected like his decision to bowl Joginder Singh for the final over of T20 world cup. He was able to get across Pakistan in the semi final in a pressure game where politics threatened to overtake the game. Coming into the final against Sri Lanka India lost the toss which was done twice as the crowd noise prevented referee from hearing the call. India played near perfect cricket but one man Mahela Jayawardene played a classy innings a century and a 250 total finally became 272. Runs on the board sizeable indeed, and team with a centurion in a final seemed that India were on the back foot. The Wankhede stadium and the weather meant that there would be assistance to the fast bowlers due to the breeze from one end and at 38 for two with Sehwag and Tendulkar gone India could have panicked. A young Virat Kohli and the tough Gautam Gambhir took the score to 110 when against the run of play Kohli got out and with the greatest of all Muttiah Muralitharan perhaps threatening Dhoni came on ahead of red hot in form Yuvraj to soak the pressure and negate the Lankan attack kingpin with a left right combination. After that as they say the rest is history. Both Dhoni and Gambhir took India to safety and with less than 50 runs to get in 8.4 remaining overs Gambhir lost his wicket to a rash stroke a moment he will rue for the rest of his life. The site of Dhoni clobbering asix with a near perfect shot meant the creation of an iconic moment that will remained indelibly etched in the memories of all who saw this and lived this moment. I remember sitting in the chair watching the whole game without a break. Such was the magic of 2011. 

About 2024 yes I was there watched the game but the magic is not the same anymore. Rohit and Virat do not evoke the same feelings as the Dhoni. Sehwag, Tendulkar Yuvraj team. Yes the bowlers of 2024 were great and played a great role especially Bumrah, Arshdeep and Hardik but The finalist were the life time chokers South Africa and so we won. If India would have lost Virat Kohli strike rate of 128 would have made him the cause of India's defeat and the bowlers saved him from going out with a sad loss. As in a T20 game the last 5 outstanding overs with the amazing catch under pressure by Surya Kumar Yadav gave India a victory which was snatched from the jaws of defeat. Cricket holds a place in our lives but the magic is slowly fading. The post win celebrations are not as they were in the olden days.

Vispi Jokhi