REDKP
7-July-2022
"Well, the 2003 World Cup final was won by Australia against India at Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg, whose stuff can be discussed in another article."
This is where I had to abruptly end my last article of the year 2021, to maintain the crisp of the situation.
India lost the final against Australia on the 23rd March 2003. But as I traced back the campaign, it wasn't domineering, but they were not underdogs either. India entered the campaign as one of the favourites to win the cup. Australia has its ace card leggie test positive for a dope test (That's late Shane Warne). The ten overs of Warne proved to be crucial for them. Warne was a bonafide legend at that point. On a green top(favouring pacers), he could extract that bite off the wicket. Warne, we miss you today. Even without him, the Aussies win the cup. Let's focus back on India now.
The plot to this final marked only from India's second league match against the Aussies at the Centurion.
Lee, Mcgrath, and Gillespie destroyed an out-of-form Indian batting line-up. Everyone got rattled due to the extra pace that the Aussie pacers possessed. Also, the Supersport Park, Centurion was known for favouring pace. The African conditions are pacer-friendly conditions. Consequently, India lost the match in a humiliating manner Captain of the ship, Ganguly was seen as a laughing joke.
Then came a headline the next day:
Indian team has great players but only on paper (Just after a loss?).
The Indian team had a humiliating tour in New Zealand before this CWC. The first match against the Netherlands was a hard-fought win. So, such news headlines were the norm. Now, this was the crossing of the Laxman-Rekha. Stone pelting happened at various places including Mohammed Kaif's residence. Today stone pelting is absent, but heavy shunning of a loss on social media platforms after losing a game of cricket is the norm of the troll armies (Flag bearers of hate propaganda). These people have a knack for creating fuss out of nothing.
Such events just united the team, prepared for the fight ahead. One match that interested me while scanning through the scorecard is match number 30 between India and England.
India scored just 250 runs? Well let's recall a point from the previous related one :
So, most often or not matches were low-scoring thrillers where the fielding team ends up defending such totals. A classic example was the group stage encounter between INDIA and the NETHERLANDS, where the Indian team batting first made only around 200 runs all out and ended up winning by a healthy margin of 60 odd runs. So clearly it can be inferred that even a score of 220-230 could set up an exciting affair.
This match happened at Durban Kingsmead Stadium, another pacer-friendly condition but Ashish Nehra's seam bowling masterclass wreaked havoced through England's dangerous batting consisting of Marcus Trescothick, Nick Knight, Andrew Flintoff (Yes, the guy who got the shirtless celebration by DADA at the lord's balcony during the 2002 NatWest series for his shirtless antics in India earlier that year), Paul Collingwood ( Who went on to captain England to their first-ever T-20 world cup in 2010) etc.
Interestingly, Nehra had his ankle swollen during the faceoff but still ended with figures of 6/23 in his 10-over quota. This match had its significance, as it broke the conception that this Indian team was not merely a minnow basher.
Then later towards the knockouts, the captain joined the fray, Sourav Ganguly scored 3 hundred's in the CWC 2003, the most important one being the knock of 111 at a whopping strike rate of 98 was a highlight in his 12 years international career. Well, it was a faceoff between India and Kenya, Moisture under the surface and clouds hovering menacingly around the ground meant that conditions did not make for big-hitting. A strike rate of 98, staying till the end of the innings, facing the reverse swinging old ball towards the fag end of the inning was daunting even though it was Kenya (who were enjoying a purple patch at that point in the international arena), it was the African condition of which Kenya is more suited than the Indians. Hence 271 in 50 overs proved to be too heavy to demand from Kenya under lights, ending their purple patch and India qualified for the final summit.
This match has an interesting reference to the Indian context. India vs Namibia clash had no interest, but this match happened at Pietermaritzburg. Yes, it is the same spot as the historic significance where an important Indian was:
On the night of 7 June 1893, a young Indian lawyer, known to the world as 'Mahatma Gandhi', was thrown off a train at the Pietermaritzburg Railway Station.
Cut 109 odd years from there, the Oval stadium of Pietermaritzburg was cheering for the Indian team and then, particularly for that Indian for whom we have heard this chant:
" Sachin! Sachin!
It was a moment to cherish. One Indian was thrown out, and a century later another was cheered. Sachin Tendulkar, the youngest Bharat Ratna of India, deserves a separate feature. But only from the point of view of the 2003 CWC, he scored 673 runs in this World Cup, which is a world record today in the history of World Cups (Of Course only to be overtaken by Virat Kohli during the 2023 World Cup). His best innings were the 98 runs against our arch-rivals Pakistan, which on any given day is a high-octane clash, where cricket across the border goes a step ahead and is used as a propaganda tool all the time. Well, as Ganguly didn't do well in this match, he was called a traitor."
Sachin and Sehwag gave the required starts for the middle order to capitalise. Did they capitalise? The answer should be yes on most occasions. Credit goes to Kaif, Dravid, Yuvraj and Dinesh Mongia.
The curious case of Dravid: Today's kids might have heard about Dravid the test legend. But is there an iota of an idea about Dravid the ODI batter? He has close to 11,000 runs (10,889 to be precise) at an average of 40 despite batting in the middle order for most of his career. In this cycle between 2001-04, he was designated as the wicketkeeper to bat at the No.5 spot for the ODI team (Similar to present-day KL Rahul's role in the ODI Setup). That was a heavy load on this man of ice. This team was built around this man. He took up wicketkeeping for the sake of the balance of the team. In this CWC he scored 318 runs at an average of 62 ( 11 innings, 5 not out, which shows he has finished games quite well). Those days India didn't have the luxury of developing a pool of wicketkeepers (Well, were any available?). To be precise, India needed a Gilchrist kind of keeper and he should bat in the middle order. The answer was MS Dhoni in 2004. Rest is history.
Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan were young guns playing their first world cups. It was their foundation to end up being counted as an all-time great in the history of Indian cricket. Javagal Sreenath is a bonafide legend, who is currently working behind the scenes in cricketing matches as a match referee played his last World Cup. But, I Don't get why Anil Kumble was reduced to a traveller ( A bonafide legend).
Now let's touch on the last portion of this long yet informative feature.
The D-Day: 23rd March 2003. India wins the toss and elects to bowl first. This call of Ganguly proved to be a masterstroke. Not for the Indians, but for the Aussies. The Aussies piled up 359 runs. Ricky Ponting, who was blowing hot and cold until that day, proved to be too hot on this day. Yes, he scored 140 runs off 121 deliveries along with Damien Martyn's 88. Then rest was history, needless to speak about Indian innings. The decision to bowl first was criticised heavily but, I would love to remind you that during the toss it was cloudy and being a day match, it was an instinctive call.
Mind that during the Indian innings, there were rain interruptions if the rains favoured INDIA the game could have been pushed to the reserve day with the match starting from the beginning. Well, the past is past. But, we missed you Very Very Special Laxman in the CWC 2003 as our NO.4 batter. NO.4 was always a puzzle in Indian cricket.
But this CWC proved to be the foundation of 2011. From this team came India's best opener after Sachin whose name was Sehwag ( Titled Sultan of Multan), the best middle-order ODI batsman Yuvraj Singh who was later joined by MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina, best left-arm pacer Zaheer Khan, A legendary Harbhajan Singh and Ashish Nehra as well ( He is the genius cricketing brain, coached Gujarat Titans to their first-ever IPL title in their inaugural season). Sachin was there but playing as a living legend (The God of cricket completed a hundred centuries in international cricket). Under the uber-cool Ms Dhoni, we won the 2011 cricket world cup in the Indian subcontinent after 28 years since 1983."
Too long this time right?
WILL INDIA VENT REVENGE ON THE AUSSIES IN 2023? LETS SAY I AM WAITING!
The stats:
References:
Comments