Tricolor hoisted in England...just before Independence Day

It was an admirable performance by the Indian Cricket Team to defeat England in their backyard. Though I personally do not rate the English side very highly but the fact that Indians are not very good tourists and the English side had been having a good run at home makes the series win something to cheer about. Moreover, as the series win has come after a gap of 21 years, it is special.

The Indian team started poorly at Lords but the weather gods came to our rescue. Nothing to take away from a fine knock by Dhoni. But after the Lords performance, the Indian team recovered pretty well and dominated the last two test matches. At Trentbridge, the Indian batsmen came up with some fine performances, the english fielders came up with some childish performances and Simon Taufel came up with some forgetable decisions. But one man who was truly outstanding was Zaheer Khan. "Khan Dost" bolwed with his heart and was truly magnificent throughout the match.

In the third test, at The Oval, everyone in the much talked about Indian batting line up came good and that helped us post a mammoth total infront of the England team. Then India bowled well to be in a position to enforce a follow on.....which we did not!!! Dravid came under heavy criticism for that decision but for once......I am behind Dravid. Dravid did agree that if he would have been a spectator, he would have been disappointed about the decision. That is exactly what happened to most of us but later the decision made a lot of sense, at least to me. Agreed that we bowled pretty well to bowl out the english side cheaply in the first innings but there were no monsters in the pitch. What if we had enforced the follow on and one or two of the english batsmen had come up with long knocks? (They actually made decent runs in the fourth innings) What if England had taken a lead of 150....I am sure India would have been in deep trouble afterwards. Dravid may be saying that he thought that his bowlers are tired. I do not agree with that. Dravid simply played safe and there is nothing wrong with that. Isnt it common in football and hockey games that a side after taking a lead just keeps passing the ball among themselves to kill time? That's what Dravid was doing. We had the series in our pocket and Dravid was ensuring that it stays there. 20 years hence, no one will talk about whether we won 1-0 or 2-0.....but people will remember that we went to England and won a test series. Now thats not very common. Bravo Captain!!!

Another reason why this series was special is that everyone came good. After a long time, the Indian team "played together". Whenever that happens, it automatically becomes special.