Fans pray for Team India’s victory at Sai Temple in Patna on Friday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, April 1: The nation, including the state capital, is in the grip of prayers and numerology. After all, the most important match — the final of the ICC World Cup 2011 — is upon us.

People of Patna are joining hands for prayers for Team India’s sweet victory in Saturday’s final against Sri Lanka at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai.

Prayers are being observed across the state to wish Dhoni & Co. all luck and to help them keep up the good work they have been doing since start of the series. More than 300 students of RK Spoken Zone organised a special puja at Sai Temple in Kankerbagh. The students carried pictures and cut-outs of the Team India players and chanted hymns and slokas. Slogans like “Sai ka nara hain, World Cup humara hain” filled the air as the students rallied for the players of Team India.

Teacher of the coaching institute John D’costa was the one who had organised the puja to pray for the team’s victory. John told The Telegraph: “I have full faith in Sai Baba. With his blessings, Team India will repeat history after 28 years.”

True, it’s been that long since Kapil Dev lifted the World Cup at the Lord’s in 1983.

John had words of praise for “Captain Cool” Mahendra Singh Dhoni. He said: “According to the stars, Dhoni has lady luck on his side. Whatever he touches will turn gold.” Standing by Dhoni’s success as a captain, John is sure he will lift the Cup just as he lifted the first T20 World Cup four years back in 2007.

The puja started at the Sai Temple at 10am and continued till 11.30am. Students of RK Spoken Zone distributed 51kg laddoo among themselves as well as the residents of the area, who came for the puja.

Shruti, a student of the institute, also stood by numerology to vouch for India’s chances to come up at the top on Saturday night. She said: “Lady luck is with Team India. Both in the quarter-final and semi-final, the wining target was between 260 and 261. It is auspicious for the team.”

She also added that the digit 5 is lucky for the team — in the English alphabet, India comes to five letters.

The students have meanwhile selected their best bets for the match. And who else better than Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar. Many of them claimed that Sachin Tendulkar is in good form and it will be a Herculean task for the Sri Lankan team to stop him from going all the way.

One of them, Aditya Gupta, said: “Tendulkar is in good form. His record against Sri Lanka is also good. The three M’s of the Sri Lankan team — Ajantha Mendis, Muttiah Muralitharan and Lasith Malinga will not be able to stop him.”

Aditya is also pinning his hopes on Yuvraj Singh, who has been great with both bat and ball, this Cup.

So keep on sending those prayers to Team India, people! Let’s avenge the defeat of 1996 and keep the Cup at home.

cricket divine

Zaheer Khan

19 wickets in 8 matches and is the second-highest wicket-taker this tournament. By far our best bowler. Be it Devon Smith of the West Indies, Graeme Smith of South Africa, Michael Hussey of Australia or Kamran Akmal of Pakistan, all of them bowed to his mastery. Come the final, he is again the man with the ball.

Number speaks: 19 wickets in 8 matches and 18 runs with a strike rate of 85.7

 

Yuvraj Singh

If Ponting fired at the right time, it was for a losing cause. Struggling for form for the past couple of years, Yuvraj has again done wonders to his present and future. Here is our all-rounder who has fired at the right time. Let him do it again, against the Lankans on Saturday.

Number speaks: 341 runs and 13 wickets in
8 matches