Two Miraculous Days

   26^th and 28^th of February month were miraculous days as far Indian sports are concern, as on these two days Indian players played best games that can also be named as miraculous and their opponents lick the dust of massive defeats which inflate the chest with proud of Indian sports followers. On 26^th February Indian hockey thrash France in the final by 8-1 and get entry into Men’s hockey event of London Olympics 2012, unfortunately first and only time in the history of Olympics which spread over eighty years unable to qualify in the Beijing Olympic 2008. On 28^th February Indian cricket team won one of most exciting and unbelievable match in recent time as on that day India defeat Sri Lanka by seven wickets while chasing mountain of runs in record overs. 

   India had supremacy in the hockey sports since its inception & inclusion in the International tournaments, that’s why hockey is India’s national sport, but for Beijing Olympics 2008 Indian hockey team failed to qualify first time till date. This year from 18^th February,2012 to 26^th February, 2012 ‘Pool A’ qualifier held in New Delhi for London 2012 Olympics. In the final India beat France 8-1, thanks to five goals by Sandeep Singh and one each by Birender Lakra, Sunil Vitacherya and V.R. Ragunath. Below is Indian hockey team’s journey in the tournament – 

•  February 18th, 2012 ---India v/s Singapore---15 – 1 
•  February 19th, 2012---India v/s Italy---8 – 1 
•  February 21st, 2012----India V/s France---6-2 
•  February 22nd, 2012---India v/s Canada---3-2 
•  February 24th, 2012---India v/s Poland---4 – 2 
• February 26th, 2012---India v/s France---8 – 1

the way Indian hockey played in the tournament and if they get down with same pace in the coming Olympics London 2012, then it will be surprise if India won’t win medal in Olympics 2012, so all the best for Indian Hockey team to continue their best show till Olympics.

    Indian Cricket Team after the pathetic debacle during the tour of England in which they lost all the International games without wining single match in any format of cricket viz Test Match, ODI and T20, presently Indian cricket team is in Australia and England story is continue in Australia as they have lost test match series 0-4, T20 stands 1-1 and before their last game of Australia tour was against Sri Lanka on 28^th February( if they don’t qualify for Finals), they were pathetic, clueless, divided and scattered in almost all their games they played, so team India’s last match against Sri Lanka team India needed to defeat Sri Lanka with bonus point as then their standing in points table equal to Sri Lanka thus can hope for birth in the finals but along with it if Australia beat Sri Lanka in the last game. On 28^th February until the Sri Lanka innings it appeared that team India is coming back to India after the game is over as Sri Lanka hit 320 for the lose of four wickets in their stipulated fifty overs, so not only India had to won the game but also chase it under forty overs to get bonus point, which was tough but not impossible, countless fans across country switch off their TV sets, but Indian batters surprise everybody especially Virat Kohli who was remain unbeaten on 133 and his innings contains sixteen fours and two sixes, below is scorecard of the match –

India v/s Sri Lanka, 28^th February,2012 -played at Bellerive Oval, Hobart, India won the toss and opted to field first –

Sri Lanka innings (50 overs maximum) 

•  DPMD Jayawardene caught Sehwag ball Jadeja  -22 
•  TM Dilshan -not out  160 
•  KC Sangakkara  ball  Parveen Kumar  105
• NLTC Perera       run out (Kumar/Tendulkar) 3 
•  AD Mathews        caught Ashwin ball Zaheer Khan 14
• LD Chandimal not out 2

Extras   (leg bye 3, wide 11)14                                                 

Total    (4 wickets; 50 overs)    320 (6.40 runs per over)

Fall of wickets 1-49, 2-249, 3-279, 4-309                                                      

Bowling -                    

Zaheer Khan -9 -0 -61-1      

Parveen Kumar – 9-0-64-1  

UT Yadav-8-0-56-0              

RA Jadeja-9-0-43-1             

R Ashwin-10-0-52-0             

V Sehwag-3-0-24-0               

SK Raina-2-0-17-0               

India innings - 

•  V Sehwag caught Dilshan ball Maharoof -30 
•  SR Tendulkar       lbw b Malinga 39 
•  G Gambhir run out (Chandimal/Mathews) -63 
•  Virat Kohli not out  133 ball faced 86 hit fours 16 hit sixes’2 Having Strike Rate of 154.65 
•  SK Raina not out  40

Extras   (bye 4, leg bye 6, wide 6)                                                        

Total    (3 wickets; 36.4 overs) 321 (8.75 runs per over)

Fall of wickets 1-54 , 2-86, 3-201

Bowling-                    

SL Malinga-7.4-0-96-1        

KMDN Kulasekara-8-0-71-0          

MF Maharoof-3-0-21-1                   

NLTC Perera-7-0-59- 0       

AD Mathews-7-0-44-0                     

HMRKB Herath-4-0-20-0

and I don’t think there is any need for guessing who was Man of the Match, certainly it was Virat Kohali.

     Two days which belongs to Indian sports was simply due to two heroes in both the games by name Sandeep Singh five goals (Hockey) and Virat Kohli 133 not out having sixteen fours and two sixes’ with striking rate of 154.65(Cricket), hopefully not only both will continue their forms in the forthcoming games but they will also inspire their respective team members to lift their performances at higher levels.