India broke the 15-year old jinx to clinch the Asia Cup in Dambulla by beating Sri Lanka in the finals. The tournament especially proved lucky for some of the Delhi Daredevils star playing for respective countries.

By Himanshu Dubey

Gautam Gambhir

Gautam Gambhir, Tilakratne Dilshan and Farveez Maharoof may not have lit up the stadium playing for their franchise, Delhi Daredevils, in this year’s IPL, but they proved their mettle by putting up stellar performances for their respective national squads in the recently concluded Asia Cup.

Gambhir, who was pegged back by injury during the IPL, had a string of poor scores in the Caribbean Islands resulting to India’s early exit from the ICC World T20.

The stylish opener contributed a mere 69 runs in the four matches he played. His batting average of 17.25 did not help Team India’s cause which was already struggling with tired, out of form and unfit playing XI.

Nevertheless, more than a month lay-off seems to have re-energized Gambhir. He showed signs of coming to form in Asia Cup. With back to back half centuries, he reinstated that he is of paramount importance to India.

The match winning knock of 83 against Pakistan showed how he can fill into the shoes of greats like Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar. Gambhir’s presence meant that Sehwag, who was struggling against Pakistan until then, got the time to build his innings.

 With World Cup just eight months away, Gambhir’s return to form is music to the ears of cricket pundit who are putting their bet on India winning the World Cup at home.

Tilakaratne Dilshan

Asia Cup also proved how crucial Tilakaratne Dilshan is for Sri Lanka. Coming back to form during the tri-series in Zimbabwe, Lanka’s hard-hitting batting all-rounder continued his form to book Sri Lanka a place in the finals. A crucial player in the squad, he provided the Lankans with steady starts at the top of the order, laying a solid foundation for the middle order batsmen to capitalize. His 71 off 51 balls against Bangladesh helped Lankans put up a good total on the board and subsequently secure a massive victory over Bangladesh.  

Dilshan aggregated 603 runs with an average 75.37, at a terrific strike rate of 103.07 in 10 matches, including two centuries and four fifties, in 2010. Add to it the numbers of runs he saved in the field and Dilshan becomes a must have in the team player.

But, Dilshan also had an unforgettable IPL this year, with a batting average of 8.8, he managed to score only 44 runs in the 5 matches, which resulted in his ouster from the squad for the rest of the tournament. With top-guns not firing for Delhi, their IPL campaign snapped much earlier than anticipated.

Farveez Maharoof  

With Dirk Nannes leading the Delhi attack, medium pacer Maharoof hardly made an appearance for Delhi, while Ashish Nehra did not play a single game in the league because of his injury.

Playing in place of slinger, Lasith Malinga in an inconsequential tie against Indians before the finals, Delhi medium pacer, Farveez Maharoof, bulldozed India’s lower middle-order with a superb hat-trick, making him only the third Sri Lankan to achieve this feat. Later he went on to take a five wicket haul, grossing his career best figures of 5 for 42 in his allotted quota of 10 overs.

Ashish Nehra

Recovering from injury, Nehra was included in ICC World T20, where he bowled well in the league matches; however he failed to carry on with the good performance but proved ineffective in the super-eight stage, where he gave away too many runs.

But his four-wicket spell in Asia Cup finals proved that the lanky bowler still has it in him and will be a handy weapon in Dhoni’s armoury for the World Cup.

Delhi’s star batsman, Virender Sehwag, looked out of sorts with the bat; however his bowling performance in India’s opener against Bangladesh was refreshing to see.

The players are coming good for the national teams just in the nick of time, as now every ODI series is taken as preparatory series for the World Cup to be played in the sub-continent and going with the current form of the Asian giants, chances are that one of them might snatch the World Cup title from Australian clutches.

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