A satisfying day for Indian cricket. - For test lovers , For all those who have seen the Barbaros 1997 test when we needed 120 to win and we would not do it.
For my generation!
This generation of committed Indian fans have had so many heartbreaks that it will take me another blog- however, I will mention just a few.
England '96 series: Ganguly and Dravid introduced themselves in style. Prasad and Srinath proved they hunted well as a pair. But a unique cricketer -with a moustache and a hat stood between our 1st overseas test win.
Barbados Test- 1997: It hurt so much more, as it was the 1st day of the summer vacation after the pressure cooking SSC exams.
Newlands Test - 1998 : So close, yet so far - Cullinan and Donald batted endlessly to leave India with 2 wkts away from that elusive win
Zimbabwe one off 1998 - we lost this one too!
Australia Series 1999-2000: Although India lost 0-3 this series has far damaging effects. This series is responsible for me scoring 56% in 1st year engineering (my lowest!). I ruined my career watching Vijay Bharadwaj and Hrishikesh Kanitkar score 5 runs in 70 mins while another special Sachin 116 at MCG was directly responsible for a poor Chemistry score.
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| Sachin - lone survivor in Aus '99 |
Then came the match fixing scandal - denting further our interest in the game. A time, when our heroes Azhar and Jadeja were involved in a scam which dented the pride and image of the nation. It seemed like a passion was fading...Some went back to books, others switched to EPL and F-1. Every wicket was watched with suspicion...
This was around May 2000.
However, after a 3 month cricket layoff, India came out with a new look squad.
New captain, a couple of young blokes and a new approach.
The immediate impact was in the form of Zaheer Khan. Ripping the batters with his yorkers, he immediately brought the confidence that the Indian team needed. On the batting front, another young lad was weaving his magic with the bat - Yuvraj Singh. A classy 84 vs AUS helped us to a roaring win.
Ths Indian team had won their valuable Indian fan once again!
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Part 2 to follow
