All of us have seen enough cricket and have witnessed enough Golden Moments to remembring which just makes our chest heave with pride. So here is a list of all the proud moments which i have compiled hope it makes you feel as proud as it does me…
1983 WC Final – Havent seen it but can imagine the joy and excitement the people would have felt at the moment when Kapil Dev took that brilliant catch to dismiss Viv Richards and the final ball of the innings when Mohinder Amarnath dismissed Michael Holding. After all nobody gave that young Indian side a chance to win the World Cup and even in the final after scoring 183 in that first innings and the way Viv Richards was batting, he could have finished in 30 overs but the side didnt lose hope and finally pulled off the unimaginable…. Kudos to that side
Lords Final(Against England) – The win is the story of the two young heroes of Indian Cricket, that day belonged to Kaif and Yuvraj Singh. After being sent in to chase 326 India were reeling at 140/5 and even the eternal optimists had lost any hope of an Indian win but the two young lads got together and pulled the huffing and puffing Indian wagon to an unimaginable win. Still the image of Kaif getting up after making a wicket saving dive at the bowler’s end and the famous “Shirt Act” by Dada.
Kumble’s 10/74 – This perfotmance can’t be excluded from any list of individual performance for the sheer record. After all an event which has occurred only 2 times in whole history of Test Cricket deserves a special applause. Introduced at a time when Pakistan were placed comfortably at 105/0 Kumble came and struck and struck time and again until he didnt take his 10th wicket of the innings. I still remember the over bowled by Shrinath when he in an attempt not to get a wicket was bowling ball way wide of stumps.
Winning test match in Australia – Whenever India has ventured Down under.. Its always been a whitewash as far as i can remember but that year it was something different, in the first test of the Series Dada proved his mettle by scoring 144 against the Australian pace battery. But the time for India came a few days later when India won a test against Australia for the first time on Australian soil thanx to two solid knocks of 233 and 72 by Dravid. Well that was an awesome win… A win to be proud of considering Indian track record out of sub continent. I dont remember any team in the recent past dominating Australian Team as much as Indian team did in that tour.
Winning the Test Series in Pakistan – Winning is always sweet and when its against archg rivals then its even better and when you defeat them on their home soil then there can be nothing better than that. The series had many firsts – India winning their first test on PAkistani soil, India winning their first test series in Pakistan , First triple century by any Indian in Test Cricket.
Brilliance after Following on – Who can ever forget that classic test. Only the Third Instance in Test Match when a team won a test match after followin on. The Quality of Innings played by VVS Laxman while scoring 281 and the able support given by Dravid to him during the course of the innings made Australians christen Laxman as “Very Very Special” Laxman. That one innings changed the course of the series and India won the Test Series after being behind 1-0 and finally won the series 2-1
Sachin in Sharjah in 1998 – Which living soul who had witnessed the two innings which Sachin played aginst Australia in Sharjah on those two historic days can forget them. Those are the gems of Sahcin’s career and i can never forget those two innnigs until i live on the face of this earth. The final of the series keeps etting telecasted many times and whenever its shown on TV, people cant leave the innings, situation in the TV room becomes similar to the condition when a live match is being shown. Just can’t ever forget those two beauties.
Sachin against Pak in 2003 WC – A One Day Match against Pakistan always has that special attraction wherever and whenever its played and when the match is played to secure a birth in the next round of World Cup then the excitement can’t be better. In such a match Sachin decided to show his class and stamp his authority of Shoaibs, Akrams and waqars of Pakistani team and all the three great bowlers seemed to be like School kids when met with the genius of Sachin. Shoaib was dispatched over the boundary with such contempt fitting for some school team bowler and the hammering he recieved from Sachin in his first over forced him to get out of the bowling attack. In the end when Sachin got out at 98 to a shoiab bouncer he was a tired man due to the cramps he got during the course of innings but he had assured another win against Pakistan in the World Cup thus mantaining India’s clean record aginst Pakistan in the ” MAHAKUMBH OF CRICKET”
Sehwag 309 against Pakistan – The first and only(till now) triple century by an Indian came from a batsman from whom it was least expected. Nobody in the whole wode world would have expected the Swashbucking “Nazafgarh ka Nawab” to register a triple century. Nobody would have thought that he will ever play an innning as long as that but he did and did it in style, scoring his 300th run with a six hitting the shot when at a score of 295, typical Sehwag. Whatever happens nobody can take the credit away from him for being the First Indian to achieve the feat which batsmen like Sachin , Dravid, Gavaskar , Ganguly, Azhar couldnt…
Independence Cup 3rd Final at Dhaka – The first time when a score in excess of 300 has chased succesfully by a team and what more can you want when the win is against Pakistan. The Independence Cup Final in Dhaka in the year of 1998 cant be forgotten quite easily. Pakistan made 314 batting first. When India came to bat Sachin was in some other world and made a quick fire 41 of 26 balls but unfortunately got out and from there on Saurav and Robin Singh steadied the shipof the Indian innings and then in the end the shot by the left handed Hrishikesh Kanitkar , the ony reason why people still remember his name, which went to the boundary won the victory for India is still one of the best remembered shot… One memory i associate with that match is the way Ganguly refused to go out of the ground when Pakistani team left the ground due to bad light and he just sat on the pitch.
I think i might have missed some of them but these are all i can remember as of now.. Please comment about any moments i have missed…
A few other events which could have made are
1) Jadeja’s serenadein ’96 WC Quarter Final gainst Pakistan whwn he plundered 22 and 20 runs off two succesive overs of Waqar Younius
2) Test Series against WI when Gavaskar scored 774 runs.
3) The match when Gavaskar becama first batsmen to score 10k test runs (it must have been something)
4) The days when Sachin became first man to score 10k ODI runs and when he borke the record of Desmond Haynes of maximum centuries in ODI’s and Gavaskar record of maximum centuries in tests
5) The match against Zimbabwe when Kapil dev scored 175 after India were reduced to 17/5
6) The innings of Sachin and ganguly when they scored 186 and 183 respectively against NewZealand and SriLanka
Guess thats it.
PS1:- Felicity was fucking awesome.. It rocked
PS2:- My back and neck still paining due to the head banging i did
PS3:- I havent seen matches befor 96 WC so my list will be biased towards the time after 96 which is quite evident
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