Happy #CWC15: Superb, Best Performance By 'Team India'

The 6/6 record in the league phase was out of the blue, but India has to now work on competing hard against Bangladesh, a side full of zest, in the quarter-finals.

When you say 6/6, it usually refers to perfect vision in both the eyes. Right now, 6/6 has everything to do with the way Mahendra Singh Dhoni's boys have competed at the ICC World Cup in Australia and New Zealand and won all their matches in Pool B.

At one point of time, against the spirited Zimbabwe team on Saturday, it did appear the Indian batting top order had made a hash of it, before the Chennai Super Kings duo - centurion Suresh Raina and skipper Dhoni -- put the team back on cruise mode.

Looking back at the last one month, it has been an intense performance from the Indians. The experts had said before the World Cup begun that defeating Pakistan and South Africa was imperative and the rest would be easy. What one has seen in the last four weeks is how the Indian team kept changing gears and, even against the slightly trickier teams like West Indies and Zimbabwe, the Men in Blue did not get carried away. In any sport, it is impossible to play at the same level match after match.

To win six matches on the trot is a feat New Zealand also achieved at home in Pool A, but what makes it different for India is the cloud of doubt which hung over the defending champions. In 2011, when India won the World Cup, they did not set a blistering pace at the start.

As the matches wore on, the team started settling down. The big difference this time is how Dhoni has placed faith in more or less the same set of players right through. Barring one match where Bhuvneshwar Kumar came in for star fast bowler Mohammed Shami, who was taking a precautionary break for a knee niggle, it has been a commanding performance from a tight bowling unit.

To bowl out six different teams and get 60 wickets in Australia and New Zealand means the Indians are doing the right things with pace and swing, while the high-quality spin of Ashwin is also very potent. Shami played five matches and finished with 15 wickets. Ashwin has taken 12 wickets, Mohit Sharma and Umesh Yadav 10 each and Ravindra Jadeja seven from six matches.

The batting has looked solid with Shikhar Dhawan's return to form so important for the team at the top and Virat Kohli scoring 301 runs in six matches.

No side can ride on bursts of individual brilliance, so Suresh Raina batting with panache at the No. 5 slot and Dhoni scoring in two important matches against West Indies and Zimbabwe proves his utility once again.

At this point of time, it would be worthwhile to recall the kind of muck which had been said about the Indian team before the team departed for Australia.

With the Supreme Court coming down on the muck of IPL and its two teams - Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals - the focus threatened to shift towards some players for alleged roles in the ugly side of the sport. Handling this kind of stress is not easy but the good thing was that the team was playing far away from home and the focus was just on cricket. When the team played sloppy cricket in the tri-series, there was concern how the defending champions would cope with the pressure of expectation from millions of fans.

Full marks to Dhoni, team director Ravi Shastri and head coach Duncan Fletcher and their team for insulating the players from the negatives and focusing on the job till now.

To be sure, the World Cup starts all over again for Team India. The 6/6 record in the league phase was out of the blue, but the team has to now work on the next challenge of competing hard against Bangladesh, a side full of zest, in the quarter-finals.

There have been quite a few surprises till now in the World Cup and Bangladesh have done well to get this far and try and shed their "minnows" tag. They face the neighbours in a shootout at Melbourne on March 19. The Indians have a funny record in the World Cup. The last time India lost a knockout match in the World Cup was to Ricky Ponting's Australia in the 2003 World Cup final.

But one cannot forget that in the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies, it was Bangladesh who shut India out in the first phase itself. The key from here on is how Team India handles the pressure all over again.

The quarter-final is like a heavyweight bout, and yes, Bangladesh are the underdogs. But to think they are pushovers is madness. They make up for their lack of experience with intensity when they play on the big stage. For this factor alone, their progress through the group stage has been enchanting.