A long and arduous tour finally came to an end on a happy note, as India finally exorcised a lot of ghosts, beating Australia 2-0, to win the Commonwealth Bank one-day series. India had never won a single match in the best of three finals on the three earlier occasions when they made it that far.

For me, what really stood out in the entire tournament was Dhoni’s captaincy, which was top class. He went by gut feel several times, and more often than not, his team responded the way they were meant to. It was encouraging to see the youngsters in full flow, and almost everyone got a game. Dhoni was also not afraid to experiment and learn from his mistakes. What I also liked was the confidence he showed in his bowlers, getting them to bowl crucial overs, regardless of whether they were newcomers or whether they’d been hammered all over the park.

Amidst all this, the grand old man of this team really stood out. Sachin Tendulkar, who began his career when many members of the current team were in nappies, once again stamped his class on the match, scoring 91, before falling to a well taken catch by Ponting. I wish he had got his century, though, and it reminded me of his knocks against the same opponent at Sharjah almost 10 years ago, when he scored back to back centuries, one to get India in the final, the other in the final itself. Hopefully, his performance would have done a lot to shut up the critics.