In a special supplement in the Deccan Herald marking India's World Cup win, R Kaushik speaks to Zaheer Khan, the man who almost single-handedly shouldered the burden of leading India's bowling attack and emerged the joint-highest wicket-taker of the tournament, on India's approach to the campaign, the responsibility of the leading the attack, how he has mastered his craft and more.
To be honest, I was just in the zone. I didn t really think too far ahead or what happened in the previous game. I was trying to stay in the present, take it one game at a time. Once things started to fall in place for me, I just kind of built on it throughout the tournament.That s what we always talked about peaking when it mattered. Everyone knew about it. Obviously, when we had to go into the knockout stages, we also talked about how now is the time, that we have to put in that extra bit from here on. It definitely worked this time for us.
In the same newspaper Madhu Jawali speaks to Virat Kohli, one of the key cogs in India's victorious campaign about winning the World Cup in his debut campaign, Tendulkar and the emotional aspect of the win and his own performance in the final.
It was such a high and there were so many thoughts doing rounds in your head... It was beyond our imagination that we had done it. Everyone was so emotional because we had put in lots of hard work in the last three years and particularly in the last one year for this World Cup.Playing my first World Cup, getting to play the final was a dream come true for me. I didn t see any point in messing it up thinking about too many things.