I can name this blog Kumbhakarna blog officially. It usually wakes up after every 6 months and tries its hand at some inane banter. Well, it's the World Cup (#wc11 wala) that has woken it up this time around. The India-England TIE to be more precise.
Pundits (on Cricinfo, FB, and Twitter) are talking about how both teams deserved to lose and all. Concerned citizens of India are wondering aloud whether this Indian team can bring back the world cup with this sort of bowling outfit. Well this is my attempt to calm their nerves.
In all world cups (other than 1979, 1996 and 2007), the eventual victors have had to go through some really nervy moments and some major losses also.
In 1975, it was Sarfraz Nawaz who gave a major headache to Clive Lloyd as Pakistan almost beat WI in one of the Group B matches. They needed Andy Roberts and Murray to take them through, with a last wicket stand of 64 runs.
In 83, we all know what a scare Zimbabwe gave us. But for Kapil Paaji we might as well have gone down to 34/10 from 17/5. What usually misses our collective attention is that India also lost two matches to Aus and WI with margins of 162 and 66 runs respectively.
In 87, I was too focused on India to care about the Aussies but India sure did give them a run for their money, losing by 1 run in a group match. And obviously Gatting looked like getting there before he tried his hand at reverse sweeping Border in the final.
The most vivid scenes from 92 for me are Miandad jumping up and down in front of More. Yes Pakistan lost that one (as they always against India). I remember Lara and Richardson chasing down 220 without losing a wicket - against Pakistan. England also scared the shit out of them in a no result. How the hell did they manage to win the cup?
1999 you say? Aussies lost to Kiwis and Pakistan before tying their semi-final against the Springboks (greatest ODI and all).
While the Aussies went through the 2003 edition unbeaten, they had their fair share of scares. You should have seen their faces when Bhajji was belting them out of the ground at Centurion. Pakistan and England also managed to scare them before Symonds and Bichel bailed them out.
1979, 1996, and 2007 are exceptions in this rule. Though frankly, in 2007, I didn't watch any cricket from the moment India were shut out by Sri Lanka till Bangaldesh Vs India test matches started with Telugu commentary. 1996 - Aussies and WI did not travel to Sri Lanka, else they might also have been scared. And ask any Lankan in Eden on that fateful semifinal night. I am sure they were all scared of being burnt alive by the crazy arsonists in the crowd.
We had a continuation of the rule in T20 World Cups as well. India nearly lost to Pakistan and indeed lost to Kiwis in 2007, before Misbah tried managing his pallu and lost the plot. After that T20 WCs have been continuations of IPLs so don't recall any scares.
But the point is, it is ok if England managed to score 338 in an Indian ground against a bowling line up boasting more than 600 ODI wickets among themselves. I would say it would be better if Ireland and Netherlands also scare (only scare. Jail them if they win) us a bit. Seems that is the only way India is going to win the Cup. God, obviously has to keep scoring those centuries.
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