I was in 3rd yr engg...The college festival going on...
I asked Ashley.."wats the score Ash?"
Ashley was this Aussie brat...supporting them gungho right from the 1st test.
"India 128/8...laggayi tere India ki!"
Me Sid Nimit and Andy went about our usual college stuff, dissapointment in our eyes...
The next day, India improved marginally, following on and closing the day at 272/4. Just 20 runs ahead or something...
And then there was magic!
Laxman played the VERY VERY SPECIAL knock ably suppported by the WALL..and India batted the entire day 4 without losing a wicket.The next day...amidst the computer labs, we saw the live proceedings along with our professor as Bhajji got one to hit the pads of Mcgrath and the Indian umpire(I forgot his name) put his hand up even before the Indians went up to appeal.
That was one pivotal day for Indian cricket and her fans...
And since then my love for Test crcket has only grown...
Andy Nimit and Sid , all of us were watching the Sabina Park match at my place , and at the same time were also playing our box cricket version at 2 am...
And then there was the India Australia series down under in '08
...during our Delhi trip with the Nitie junta...
we spent an entire morning in the Delhi hotel room watching the days play...
when we were supposed to go sightseeing...
Or simply waking up at 5 am...never ever in life will you see me so excited waking up before the sun...and switch on the TV...and then brush my teeth at the end of session 1, have breakfast during the tea session and finish off the day's play with lunch.
Or the conservative India England encounters...Dravid and Bangar batting with utmost care to reach 210/2 at the end of day 1 and Ganguly and Sachin running all over England on day 2 to post 628/8!
Sachin's huge six of Caddick, I think it was! and Ganguly taking care of Giles career.The beauty is in watching the same 90 overs at different times of the day.
It gives a different feeling to the entire game.
The early mornings, is actually a torture to wake up...
while the late night matches used to give a chance to officially watch Fashion TV back then..
India had only 13 overseas wins between 1932 to 2000
This decade we have won 19 matches overseas.
Im glad I have witness almost all of them...
It used to be fun to bunk classes and catch a glimpse...
its fun doing the same at work too
Its a great feeling as a cricket fan!
5 comments:
nice post atlee
i think the most painful day was the Barbados test of 1997.
Last day of 10th Board exams. Dodda Ganesh and Kuruvilla had ripped through Windies in the 2nd innings leaving a paltry target of 120 to chase and win a test (which was als the series decider) on foreign soil after years. Perfect vacation gift for us people. And what does India do?
80 all out...
You are right...I think we (the Indian test cricket followers) deserve this success more than the team. Bravo
yes atlee..I remeber v were having our Advance digital circuit (something similar) practicals..when v won..........
But this journey started with Ganguly taking over from sachin and changing the attitude of the youngsters......
Current success is a tree grown frm seed sown by Prince of Kolkatta......
And I remeber the magical 10 wkt spell from Kumble. I was giving some Karla Shukla exam (12th std) on a sunday afternoon and the supervisors were discussing no of wickets by kumble. They kept saying 2,4, 8 and then by the time I finished it was all 10!!!
Another one against Pak is of course the Sehwag triple century, fabulous!!!
@Bhavish: I was there too dude! Karla Shukla Classes afternoon exam...
Nice post dude...
I remember that day too.. Congrats to the Indian Cricket team on being No.1 in the world. Thats quite an accomplishment. You and your team have proved me wrong!!
Keep Rocking!!!
~ashley
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