The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : A win that lifted our spirits

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Cricket

A win that lifted our spirits

Kumar Sangakkara

It may not have been a comprehensive or clinical victory, but our dramatic last-over win against Deccan Chargers was no less sweet. We made plenty of mistakes along the way, especially with the bat, but we can be truly proud of the fight we put up. It was a win that lifted our spirits and leaves us agonisingly close to a place in the semifinals.

However, we are not home yet — far from it, in fact. Besides some very good fortune, we need to beat Chennai Super Kings and that will require some extremely good cricket.

We do need to bat better. We cannot expect to beat Super Kings unless we see a big improvement in this department. Once again, there were too many soft dismissals.

Irfan’s sterling show

It was another sterling performance by Irfan Pathan on Sunday. The manner in which he held himself together in the final over refusing to give up despite Rohit Sharma’s thunderous hitting, showed great mental strength. But Irfan was not the only hero.

I thought Romesh Powar was fantastic. Harbhajan Singh may be the best off-spinner in India but Romesh is not far behind him.

Turning point

His two-wicket over, including the dismissal of Adam Gilchrist, opened the door for us at a time when Deccan was cruising.

Then, of course, there was Yuvi’s second hat-trick of the tournament. We all admire Yuvraj for his effortless clean hitting, but his bowling is very useful too.

I feel that the win, like the previous one against Daredevils, will help us grow stronger. We are becoming used to pressure games and we expect to pull through in the tighter games.

Gameplan

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport