India, Feb. 19 -- "It's disappointing that the final of a 50-over tournament had to be decided by a Twenty20 game."

One would have thought the captain of the losing side would hold this lament. Instead, it was Mahendra Singh Dhoni who made this comment at the post-match press conference, minutes after India pulled off a five-run heist over England in a stop-start final of the 2013 Champions Trophy.

Given that the match was played at Edgbaston in Birmingham, England were the host nation but no one was in any doubt about who enjoyed the majority support. A sea of blue swarmed the stands, the noise and the electricity infectious and creating a raucous atmosphere of the kind seldom seen at a cricket match in Old Blighty.

Going into the Jun...