The Indian Eleven

(Image courtesy: New Indian Express)

L Suresh profiles eleven classic Indian moments when the country celebrated its heroes.

If the World Cup was the biggest stage to showcase cricket sagas, these would fit in as drama in real life. Individual brilliance, inspiring performances, unbelievable situations – and all of them Indian. Here are eleven of the very best.

#11 Chetan Sharma
1987 World Cup

In 1986, he was India's biggest villain, having gifted a six to Miandad by bowling him a full toss. A year later, Chetan Sharma would get back into the record books - and do his country proud - by claiming the first hat-trick in World Cup history. However, Ken Rutherford, Ian Smith and Ewen Chatfield will remember that they failed where Javed Miandad succeeded – by being bowled off successive deliveries, they had scripted a success story for Chetan Sharma, one where the villain becomes the hero.

#10 Sachin Tendulkar – I
1999 World Cup

Centuries have been scored in rage, in defiance, in pain... but this one was scored in grief. Hours before a match against Zimbabwe, Sachin had to rush back to India because his father had passed away. Just as the Kenyans were hoping to take advantage of the situation, a news flash made them freeze - Sachin was coming back.

It was a match they would remember – how does one forget the hiding of one's life? The hundred came off 84 balls and Sachin eventually plundered 140 off 101 balls as India motored on to 329, aided by Dravid's century. India was on the road to the Super Sixes. One man’s gaze, however, was skywards as he dedicated the innings to his father.

#9 Sachin Tendulkar – II
1996 World Cup

While the 1992 World Cup got a fleeting glimpse of Sachin, the 1996 edition had his class stamped all over. Sachin was Mr. Consistent and barring that mild aberration when he chased a widish delivery from Mark Waugh and was stumped out against Australia, it seemed that the only way to get his wicket was to run him out. 127 not out, 70, 90, 137 – and he wasn’t finished yet. Sachin went on to score 65 in the semi-finals before he was out – stumped again. As was the practice in those times, the rest of the team couldn’t rise to the occasion and India was 120 for 8. 100,000 indignant Indians in Eden Gardens showed what they thought of this display.

#8 Rahul Dravid
1999 World Cup

The world had seen the explosive hitting of Richards and the nip-and-tuck methods of Dean Jones as the two extremes of effective one day cricket. It would now see a third school of thought - a mix of grace and power as grounds strokes and aggressive pulls came together to light up the grounds at Bristol, Taunton, Birmingham and Manchester. Rahul Dravid batted in the presence of one day legends like Sachin and Sourav and produced two of his best knocks in the 1999 World Cup - 104 against Kenya and 145 against Sri Lanka – despite playing second fiddle on both occasions. But his three fifties against South Africa, England and Pakistan saw him fly solo. 461 runs in the tournament at a strike rate of over 85. Not one day material? Not quite.

#7 Ajay Jadeja
1996 World Cup

The 1992 World Cup saw a wide-eyed kid pluck an amazing catch – from right under the shadow of Jonty airborne Rhodes - to dismiss Allan Border. Four years later, the world would be treated to an equally fantastic cameo with the bat in the quarterfinals against Pakistan. India got off to a sedate start and after a shaky performance by the middle order, in walked Ajay Jadeja to demonstrate why exactly the end overs were called slog overs. Waqar yorker Younis got the ball back in a hurry for his end over toe-crushers. Ball met boundary board with such alarming regularity that Waqar was spotted muttering and gazing at his own toes in a Kill Bill moment - as though commanding them to wake up and get him out of there fast. Jadeja raced to 45 off just 25 balls, while Waqar went for 22 off his 9th over and 18 off the 10th - the celebrations that followed are talked about in the city to this day.

#6 Sunil Gavaskar
1987 World Cup

In the one day version of the game, Sunil Gavaskar had to correct the minor anomaly of a bare 100s column against his name. And then, there was the 12 year old debt to settle. His 36 not out, over the ages, had degenerated from a joke to a blot on an otherwise exemplary career. What went wrong in one World Cup would be set right in another.

It was the final group match against New Zealand in the 1987 World Cup and India had 50 overs to reach a modest target of 222. Gavaskar however couldn’t wait for that long. India won in a little over 32 overs and the world couldn't believe that the same man who took 174 balls to score 36 would race to 103 off just 88 balls. The only thing that the two innings had in common was that he remained unbeaten both times. For once, the Kiwi bowlers were thankful that their batsmen hadn't scored more.

#5: Rahul Dravid - Sourav Ganguly
1999 World Cup

India began so badly in the 1999 World Cup that as the team approached its fourth match against Sri Lanka, the venue - Taunton – almost had a jeering ring to it. Disaster struck in the first over of the match when Sadagopan Ramesh departed - and Rahul Dravid walked in, with the score reading 6 for 1. For the next 318 runs, the scorers didn't have to bother about the wickets column as Hurricane Sourav and Hurricane Dravid struck simultaneously. Vaas went for 84 off his 10, Murali was tonked for 3 sixers and 2 fours in his last couple of overs that leaked 32 runs and the duo had blasted their way into the record books for the highest partnership ever in a World Cup.

Sourav went on to score 183 runs, the highest score by an Indian in a World Cup while Dravid finished at 145, his second hundred in three days. For a brief moment, Indian fans had something to cheer about.

#4 The awesome allrounders
1983 World Cup

Who would ever have thought that a performance of 26 runs and 3 for 12 would be good enough to merit a man of the match award in the finals of a World Cup? But 1983 was the year of slow-medium pace with a dash of swing, and cameos with the bat. That lazy run-up and the square-on stance fooled the world as Mohinder Amarnath came up with two back to back match-winning performances in the semi finals - 2 for 27 and 46 - and the finals. In a group match, Roger Binny – the joint highest wicket-taker of the tournament had thwarted the Aussies with a rearguard 21 and 4 for 29. In 16.2 overs, he and Madan Lal snared 8 Aussie wickets giving away just 49 runs.

Add to this list the man who lead the way, Kapil Dev, and India got its quartet of allrounders who did the impossible. A team that couldn’t win a single match in the previous World Cup was now going back home with the glittering trophy.

#3 The pace troika
2003 World Cup

Brett Lee, Shoaib Akthar, Akram, Shane Bond, Waqar, Srinath, Zaheer, Nehra… The 2003 World Cup saw three surprise inclusions in the list of the fast and the furious, coming from a country where fast bowling had become an oxymoron after the exit of Kapil Dev.

A troubling ankle and Flintoff on the rampage – it was going to take something special for India to defend a modest total of 250. Special turned out to be simply exceptional as Nehra ran through the top, middle and the tail, bowling 10 overs on the trot and finishing with 6 for 23. Indian bowling had just found ‘the corridor’ and for the next few days, all the action was going to happen here. A fortnight later, Sri Lanka’s ordeal lasted just 23 overs as the trio returned with the spoils of victory - figures of 10 for 103 amongst them. It was Zaheer Khan’s turn against the Kiwis as he grounded them to nothing for two, just three balls into the match. At 4 for 42, he wasn’t quite finished, but the Kiwis had crumbled to 146 all out by then.

Never before had Indian pace bowling been so lethal – with Zaheer, Srinath and Nehra, our combination of left-right-left sounded like orders for a death march to batsmen.

#2 Sachin Tendulkar – III
2003 World Cup

In hindsight, most teams would have preferred not to encourage media and advertising hype of the 2003 world cup as the great African safari. How were they to know that Sachin would take it literally and be on the prowl, looking for all those bowlers who tried to provoke him by issuing challenges in print?

While he ran circles around Netherlands, Zimbabwe and Namibia at cruising speed, he stepped on the gas the moment the big teams arrived. Caddick suffered, Shoaib Akthar withered and the whole Sri Lankan attack was shell-shocked as he wielded his willow. The image was that of Darth Vader with his light saber, cutting egos down the size. Come 2007, the survivors among them will be quaking in the boots – will it be the return of the Jedi?

#1 Kapil Dev
1983 World Cup

It’s the story that mothers tell their little ones, hoping to inspire them to scale lofty heights - a tale that had a gloomy beginning and a fairytale finish. Zimbabwe had already beaten Australia in their opening match and were threatening to run away with this one too. Wickets were falling at regular intervals and the scorecard read 9 for 4 as Kapil walked in. In a matter of minutes, India were 17 for 5 and regressed to 78 for 7. From here on, the task was simple - rally a bunch of tailenders and go on a do-or-die mission. Kapil launched his one-man army act – and the 100 came off just 72 balls. 16 fours and 6 sixers later, Kapil was motoring along at 175 off 138 balls – it didn’t matter that eight wickets were down. So were eleven Zimbabweans.

Though it is unfortunate that no acknowledged footage of this innings exists, it doesn’t come as a surprise that this miracle wasn’t captured on film. Neither was the creation of the universe or the parting of the red sea.

(Appeared in the New Indian Express Sunday Supplement on 04 March, 2007)