What a series!

There are moments in sports when the tide seems to turn, when a dominating team suddenly seems to falter, when the challengers have more hunger than the ones holding the trophy- and the shift in momentum begins to create a sense of excitment amongst the sports fan that makes all his trips to the stadium worthwhile. It happened in Boston last year when the Red Sox came from 0-3 deficit to beat the Yankees to win the ALCS and eventually the coveted World Series after 86 years. Fans went wild, and celebrations went on for days and months.

Something similar happened in London yesterday. Australia, the dominant team in World Cricket was vanquished by a resurgent English team that showed enormous resolve and consistency throughout the summer and thoroughly deserved the prize. I followed the series, match by match, ball by ball and was enthralled by the ebb and flow of what was a truly outstanding cricket series by any standards. Even as it became evident that the Aussies were nowhere near their best in this series, their tenacity under pressure, their refusal to give up, their unbelievable fight to the finish was something that showed me why they have been the best team in the world for so long.

Often, the game is won or lost in the mind, not really on skill. On form, man to man, the English team was way better, but the mental resolve not to lose from the Aussies made the series so nail-bitingly close. For the neutral, it was the very best that cricket epitomises-skill, ability to read difficult situations and respond appropriately, plan but be flexible and play accordingly, never give up even when the chips are down and statistics is against you and of course, play the game in the best spirit possible. There were a few incidents here and there but in a tough series like this, those were minimal and few and far between.

We don't know whether the tide has truly turned for good- but this was indeed refreshing. The Aussies have only been challenged by the Indians, and that too, sporadically- for them to lose a series to England means that at least, there are chinks in their once impregnable fortress and that is great for sport. But just as you can never write off the Yankees, people hastening to write off the Aussies may be speaking too soon just yet!