Image via indiatvnews.com
“We badly wanted to win this match for India on her Independence Day anniversary,” an emotional Mathews recalled of yesterday’s improbable, humped in most sessions yet delivering the knock-out punch victory over Team India.
“Yesterday morning, I told the boys, today is a very special day. On this day, 68 years ago, Bapuji’s freedom struggle bore fruit. Subsequently, Sri Lanka also won her freedom. So we must play the best cricket of our lives on [Aug 15th]. You have sattar minute…I repeat, sattar minute. About a million Sri Lankans and a thousand million Indian fans and a handful of English geriatrics will be watching. We can’t let them down,” Matthew said, trying to do his best impersonation of SRK.
The boys also watched Lagaan, Bose: A forgotten hero, Mangal Pande: the Rising, Phir bhi Dil hai Hindustani, and a clutch of patriotic Bollywood flicks overnight to get the adrenalin flowing. It didn’t hurt either that Team India director Ravi Shatri wished the Lankan cricketers happy Independence Day at the start of the day’s play.
The pep talk, the pop patriotism immersion and the overwhelming context had had its desired effect. X-men, not middling cricketers, each imbued with whacky superpowers, turned up on August 15th: Herath was lobbing grenades waiting to explode on the faces of the hapless Indians, the Lankan close in fielders were pouching every ball like a pack of hyenas closing in on a dying water buffalo, Tharindu Kaushal seemed to have descended from another planet, a la PK, N Pradeep was bowling half as fast as Dale Steyn, and Chandimal continued haunting the Indians from behind the stumps. That’s how extraordinary they were. And for good measure, Herath channelled his inner Kachchra to mesmerise the Indians. “After bowling a lot of kachchra in the first innings, it was the least I could do,” Herath said, eyes welling up with tears.
Mathews said the boys celebrated the rest of the day in the usual manner: by watching “Gandhi” on Sony Max.