espnstar.com continues to look at the Indian sporting highs of the year and pays tribute to the heroes who made news.By Rajarshi Gupta
India stormed the world at the dawn of 2008. A young captain with a young team showed who would call the shots for the rest of the year.
MS Dhoni, marshalled his resources like seasoned general and battled hard to salvage pride in the Commonwealth Bank Series Down Under. The Men in Blue dominated Sri Lanka, the third team in the fray and made them look like the Emerald Islanders had just been invited to make up the numbers.
Click here for winning images from the CB Series
The Indian machine had begun to chug. Yes, there were early stutters and stops. It took a team running high on the new age spirit to run the Aussies down their own backyard and in some style!
By the time, Sachin Tendulkar smashed a ton and splendid 91 in the first two finals, India had laid their hands on the CB Series and had won five of the 10 matches, losing three. Two games were washed out.
Gautam Gambhir led the run carnage, rattling off 440 runs from 10 matches at an average of 55.00 with two tons and a fifty.
Sachin Tendulkar, easily the most senior player on show was not too far behind as well. He blasted 399 runs from 10 games and punctuated those with a ton and a couple of fities.
Sachin's dizzying new heights
The bowlers were, however, the surprise package. Sri Lanka and Australia came up with heavy ammunition in their batting might. That did not deter Ishant Sharma from sneaking out 14 wickets from nine matches at an average of a shade over 20.
The biggest sensation was yet to make a mark though. Praveen Kumar came, saw and conquered with his expansive swing and lethal movement off the pitch. His guile and unsuppressed energy with the new ball helped him prize out 11 wickets from the last four games India played.
These were the performances that set the tone for India for the rest of the year. Gambhir went on to end 2008 as only the third Indian batsman (after Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar) to score more than 1,000 runs in both Tests and ODI's in the same year.
Tendulkar's innings in the finals still sets up to the edge of our seats in polite drawing room discussions on the Blue fervour in Australia this year.
The magic rubbed on and it refused to go away. That was when it all started to change.
Ishant's magic spell in Perth
Ishant Sharma is today the deadliest strike force Dhoni has at his desposal and if his Man-of-the-Series against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at home last month is anything to go by, Indian cricket is firmly on the highway to glory
India stormed the world at the dawn of 2008. A young captain with a young team showed who would call the shots for the rest of the year.
MS Dhoni, marshalled his resources like seasoned general and battled hard to salvage pride in the Commonwealth Bank Series Down Under. The Men in Blue dominated Sri Lanka, the third team in the fray and made them look like the Emerald Islanders had just been invited to make up the numbers.
Click here for winning images from the CB Series
The Indian machine had begun to chug. Yes, there were early stutters and stops. It took a team running high on the new age spirit to run the Aussies down their own backyard and in some style!
By the time, Sachin Tendulkar smashed a ton and splendid 91 in the first two finals, India had laid their hands on the CB Series and had won five of the 10 matches, losing three. Two games were washed out.
Gautam Gambhir led the run carnage, rattling off 440 runs from 10 matches at an average of 55.00 with two tons and a fifty.
Sachin Tendulkar, easily the most senior player on show was not too far behind as well. He blasted 399 runs from 10 games and punctuated those with a ton and a couple of fities.
Sachin's dizzying new heights
The bowlers were, however, the surprise package. Sri Lanka and Australia came up with heavy ammunition in their batting might. That did not deter Ishant Sharma from sneaking out 14 wickets from nine matches at an average of a shade over 20.
The biggest sensation was yet to make a mark though. Praveen Kumar came, saw and conquered with his expansive swing and lethal movement off the pitch. His guile and unsuppressed energy with the new ball helped him prize out 11 wickets from the last four games India played.
These were the performances that set the tone for India for the rest of the year. Gambhir went on to end 2008 as only the third Indian batsman (after Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar) to score more than 1,000 runs in both Tests and ODI's in the same year.
Tendulkar's innings in the finals still sets up to the edge of our seats in polite drawing room discussions on the Blue fervour in Australia this year.
The magic rubbed on and it refused to go away. That was when it all started to change.
Ishant's magic spell in Perth
Ishant Sharma is today the deadliest strike force Dhoni has at his desposal and if his Man-of-the-Series against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at home last month is anything to go by, Indian cricket is firmly on the highway to glory
