9/11 The Final-India's War on Terror

9/11 means 11 September for many for Indian's it is 9 November.9 November 2011 was a special day.The day of the final.The final of all finals.(Some call it the mother of all finals).The final of 2011 world cup of cricket.The final of India's many attempts of gaining the better of their sworn enemy.The venue was Gaddafi Stadium,Lahore.The venue was earlier Mumbai but in view of unprecedented riots in Mumbai it was decided to shift the final from Mumbai to Lahore.The teams in the final were India and Pakistan hence the final had to be played in India or Pakistan.The BCCI President had made a last minute call to President of PCB to host the final but only on one condition.The security of Indian team will be handled by Indian Commandoes and the NSG commandoes from India will be also allowed to have 2000 of their men in the crowds to control any untoward incident during the match.Pakistan had no option but to say yes.Because the cricket world had for long stopped sending teams to Pakistan and hosting the final was going to be a big plus in Pakistan's efforts to get back into cricketing world.Starting from Bob Woolmer's murder in the Carribeans nothing had gone right for the Pakistanis.May be Woolmer's ghost was haunting them.They had lost all prestige in last four years.Only the support given by BCCI had helped them to gain some honour back.They agreed to host the final only to further their good relationship with BCCI.The Indian team finished its practice in Mumbai under security cover because the terrorists had issued a threat to the team.They went to the airport in Mumbai in bulletproof cars and they took a special aircraft for the flight to Lahore.They were brought to Gaddafi stadium in Lahore by Indian commandoes in bulletproof cars.The toss was held with the captains and umpires going to the ground alongwith commandoes.Pakistan won the toss and asked India to bat first.The Indian opening pairwalked on to the ground.Sachin Tendulkar had been sent to open the batting in a surprise move by the Indian skipper.Sachin took guard and he turned the first ball to square leg and took of for a single.The fielder from square leg took aim .The ball crashed into the stumps almost at the same moment when Sachin's bat hit the crease.All 11 Pakistani players appealed and the umpires finger went up.This moment was the moment of reckoning.What followed was history