A befitting reply

They called Harbhajan Singh 'An obnoxious little weed'. They alleged him of racial abuse. The crowd booed him on the field. Ponting said 'They should look at their own backyard'. The entire Australian team was high on the spirit and ecstasy of arrogance. But the 'Men in Blue' did not lose focus. They were committed to answer the sledging and taunts of Australian in a befitting manner. And they did it yesterday. India won the CB series after defeating Aus in two straight finals. The series and the final was very remarkable in cricketing history for a variety of reasons.

I watched the entire match (Thanks to Sopcast!) after a long long time. And it was worth every minute spent watching it. Some of the highlights of yesterday's match.

- A brilliant, patient and classy knock by Sachin. But once again he became the victim of 'Nervous 90s'
- Sachin toppled Ponting to become No. 1 in ICC ranking
- Praveen Kumar was flawless. Some of his 'Leg break' type deliveries were just marvelous. He uses his wrist brilliantly to swing the ball both ways. He is one of the finds of the series
- Fielding of Indian side was very tight led by athletics of Yuvraj Singh on the field
- Dhoni has proved himself a very calm, composed and calculative captain who knows how to use his bowlers, not to mention his 'Lead by example' style both behind the wicket with his gloves and in front of it with his bat. It looked as if he has more than a decade of captaincy experience
- Despite of Srisanth's total lack of confidence, he held his nerves very well to deliver some very good overs in the slog overs time
- Symonds and Hayden both once again fell victim to Harbhajan. My advice to them, instead of targeting Harbhajan personally, focus more on his bowling and try to get over 'Harbhajanofobia'
- A very hilarious scene when a nude spectator ran down to the middle of the pitch. He approached Symonds with full force and momentum, but strong as a bullock he is, Symonds just stood there and the spectator bumped into him and fell hard flat on the ground. A display of enormous strength!
- A bit unfortunate for Sachin, but Praveen Kumar indeed deserved the Man of the Match award

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