The Indian World Cup Moments

The biggest cricketing show on the planet is about to start. The players and viewers have warmed up with two games each amongst them, sorting out their lineups, giving finishing touches to their strategies, using DRS, even getting a taste of the fickle English weather with games getting washed off. Only M/s Duckworth-Lewis didn't make an appearance.

While we wait for the actual tournament to start, its time for a nostalgia trip. So here we go presenting Slipstream Cricket’s favorite memories of the Indian World Cup campaigns starting from 1992 onwards (I have barely any recollection of 1983 & 1987 editions and wasn’t around for the first two). Instead of whole games, I have selected passages of play. So here we go Slipstream Cricket’s favorite Indian World Cup Moments (in no particular order).

1. The Toss (2011) – Kumara Sangakkara forgetting (or pretending to) what he called in the Toss in the 2011 Final!. Referee didn’t/couldn’t hear the call over the crowds and they had to do the toss again leaving a bemused Dhoni! (Somehow, seems very fishy in hindsight).

2. The Winning Moment (2011) – Dhoni smashing Kulasekara for 6 as India lifted the World Cup for a second time ending a 28-year wait. Will we see an encore? Hope so. 

3. The Response (1996) – Venkatesh Prasad to Aamer Sohail. Hit for a boundary, sledged by the batsman and then sends his stumps cart-wheeling the very next ball. The perfect response.

4. The Opening Salvo (2003) – Tendulkar upper-cutting Akhtar for 6 as India set to chase down Pakistan’s 274 run target.

5. The Tumbling Catch (1992) – Ajay Jadeja running in from the boundary to catch Allan Border

The Smash (2003) – Tendulkar smashing Caddick out of the ground.

6. The Banana (2003) – In the same game Ashish Nehra swung the ball like a banana to scythe through the English Line-up and then proceeeded to puke out one.

7. The Earthquake (2007) – Dwayne Leverock diving at 1st Slip to catch out Uthappa.

8. The Fight (1992) – Kiran More vs Javed Miandad. Whatever More’s sledge was, Miandad started jumping up and down in kangaroo land.

9. The Tango (1999) – at Taunton. Ganguly-Dravid scoring 300+ between themselves.

10. The Blazing end (1996) – Ajay Jadeja smashing Waqar Younis’s last 2 overs in Bangalore with a little help from Kumble and Srinath.

11. The Quote (2011) – Everyone except Sreesanth played well – by the one and only Virender Sehwag

12. The Promo Campaign (2015) – Mauka Mauka run by Star Sports as Pakistan still chase that elusive World Cup victory over India! Will they be 7th time lucky. Hope not! Funnily I couldn't recall off-hand anything else from the 2015 World Cup. 

And now that we are sufficiently warmed up, Let the Games begin!

The World Cup Memories - 2007

The 9th edition of the World Cup was held in the West Indies. It was promised to be a fun-filled tournament, pictures of the sand and the sea were used for the promotions. One of the stadiums even had a party stand with a swimming pool (!!!). But these turned out to fe false promises and the Caribbean World Cup turned out to be the most forgettable one of all.It was too long, boring, marred with a death and ended in darkness with a total chaos in the final.

I had returned to college doing my MBA. India's early exit ensured that the hostel atmosphere could not reach anywhere near the levels of the engineering days. The auditiorium had been booked for telecasting the matches. But after the first few people hardly turned up for them. Soon all the matches were being followed only via cricinfo. During the later half of the cup the summer internship had started and the live viewing reduced even further. 

India's campaign was disastrous. Losing to Bangladesh and then to Sri Lanka knocked India out off the cup. In between we did win very big against Bermuda. Ireland beat Pakistan to provide the upset of the tournament. Bob Woolmer's death following this defeat put the tournament under total gloom. And the botched up investigations made things worse.
Memories of the on-field actions, very few. Dwayne Leverock's earth-shaking catch to dismiss Robin Uthappa, Herschelle Gibbs' 6 sixes in an over, Malinga's 4 in 4 when South Africa nearly choked (couldn't resist using this word). Lara's farewell words (Did I entertain you ?). And then there was the Easter Sunday special match slated to be India vs Pakistan. Only it was Bangladesh and Ireland instead who turned out to play.
The final match between Australia and Sri Lanka summed up the utter chaos of the tournament. Rain reduced the match to 38 overs a side (a completely wrong decision in my opinion, the finals should have lasted the full duration). And further rain led to the last few overs being played in complete darkness as the match officials forgot the playing conditions (minimum 20 overs had been bowled already). And the most tragic part was that these were the best umpires available. Australia won in the end after another undefeated run through the tournament.
The Irish team provided the story of the Cup tieing with Zimbabwe, beating Pakistan and reaching the Super 8s. There was this great story of the players having to extend their leaves from their respective workplaces so that they could continue playing.
Overall a totally forgettable and chaotic tournament.

With this ends my world cup memories series of posts. Hoping to have a very pleasurable 2011 World Cup.