Kangaroos hooked, booked and cooked..India storms into T-20 finals

"Players win games, teams win championships."
- Bill Taylor

That's precisely what happened today at Kingsmead,Durban where the young Team India led by the solid captaincy of Mahindra Singh Dhoni took on the mighty 2 time World champions Australia.Although Gilchrist was filling in as the captain in place of Ricky Ponting, the team still comprised the strongest and most dangerous players(Hayden,Symonds,Lee etc).Durban has always been India's lucky field and when they put up an impressive score of 188 for 5 in 20 overs, Indian fans had reasons to be happy enough.It was a defendable score and fresh on their minds was the last match where India defended an average score of 153 against the home team, South Africa.But a little into the Aussie innings and the old feeling of de-ja-vu was haunting the mood of the Indians.It seemed like India were going to live up to their title of "chokers" and the strong Australian batting order would humiliate the Indians.But then again Sreeshanth's killer attitude and some brilliant wicket taking got us back into the game alright around the 14th over or so.What is amazing about this new Team India is the way they hold on to their confidence levels till the last ball of the match is played.Another point I consider worth mentioning is that Dhoni has a very simple way of dealing with the team member who makes an error or performs miserably initially.Dhoni always makes sure that person gets a second chance to redeem himself much to the amazement of the fans or the "know-it-all" ex-Indian cricketers turned commentators.Just like Joginder Sharma made up for the disastrous over in which he gave away 18 runs by bowling brilliantly in the last and most crucial over of the match.He picked up two wickets yes, but he kept the run at check which considering the Aussie side's team strength, could easily have been a different story altogether. Also notable were the very few number of extras bowled by us today compared to the previous matches.This article would not be complete without acknowledging Yuvraj Singh's match-winning knock of 70 off just 30 balls.He now has the T-20 record for the farthest hit over boundary(119 m).Also the ably supported role played by the skipper of 36 in 18 balls helped our cause immensely.Overall, this is a team to watch out for.....I wouldn't be surprised if we end up winning the championship.

"Sports do not build character. They reveal it. "
- Haywood Hale Broun

And as for parting words,Ravi Shastri jokingly asked Man of the matchYuvraj whether his bat was made of wood or steel.Yuvraj blushed and took the compliment well but if I could answer for him, I'd say " The bat is definitely made of willow, but Team India is made of steel."