Tuesday’s convincing 152-run victory in Nagpur ODI against Sri Lanka comes as a much-needed breather for the Indian cricket. Having been mired in all sorts of controversies in the recent past, the Team India has proved beyond doubt that it has the potential to stage a phoenix-like resurrection, no matter what odds comes its way!



The Indian feat was significant in several ways: it saw re-emergence of Sachin Tendulkar, who scored a brilliant 93 - good enough to silence his critics, once and for all; Irfan Pathan, essentially a bowling genius, who had never before batted higher than No. 7 in his ODI career, replaced Virender Sehwag to score an unbelievable 83; Mahendra Singh Dhoni did a rapidfire by bagging 38 runs off 28 balls; and last but not the least, there was the newly-enthroned skipper-king of the Indian cricket, Rahul Dravid, who played a real captain’s knock by scoring 85 not-out.



On the bowling side, Harbhajan Singh, Murali Kartik and youngster Sri Sreesanth knew their job only too well.



Stage is set for second round of firework between India and the visiting Islanders on October 28 in Mohali.



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