#Cricket I have been challenged by my alter ego Sudarshan Desigan to take up the #Top10CricketMomentsChallenge, where one needs to list his/her 10 favourite moments on a cricket field. It may be a match, a series, a certain passage of play, a century or a 5-fer by your favourite player, anything. The only condition is to include only the moments that you experienced live. Also, brace yourself, for Im going to tag an entire oor as my nominations, the reason being I have so many Cricket-Lover friends & would like to hear from them about their best moments on a cricket field, and to start a cricket chain. So, here we go. 1. India vs Australia, 3rd Test, Chennai 2001: Right after one of the greatest test matches ever played (Kolkata, Laxman-Dravid partnership). This was the first time in my life that I went for all 5 days of a test match. India made a meal of an easy chase of 155, by losing 8 wickets, but we got home somehow and won probably the most complete series of all time 2-1. Remember going inside the ground with the influence of my Mama Aravindan who was a scorer in MAC in those days & knew people. While everyone of them rushed to greet the Indians, we took a gamble and went near the Aussie team when they were coming in. Patted Shane Warne, Mark Waugh and Matty Hayden on their shoulders. Massive Units! 2. Anil Jumbo Kumbles 10 - 74 vs Pakistan at Delhi, celebrating each & every wicket with a Andha kozhandhaye neenga dhaan sir smile. The best bowler India has ever produced and my favourite Indian cricketer. Boy, do we miss him badly now! 3. Nathan Astles 222 vs England at Christchurch: He went absolutely berserk from 100 to 200 in just 34 balls! Absolutely cant forget watching this live with my neighbour Karthik. As Astle smashed each six, Soupy and I would meet in the corridor, scream Semmmaa shott da deiii and go back home. The process went on in a loop. 4. Fafs rearguard at Adelaide in his debut, stonewalling a day and a half for 376 balls, scoring 110*, drawing the test. What followed was simply stunning. South Africa gave Australia a piece of their own medicine, battering them into submission at Perth with AB scoring a audacious 165, while only a week back, he gutsed it out for 220 balls with his best friend Faf for 33, showing that he can shift gears like no one can. 5. Sachin vs Steyn, Cape Town 2011: Unstoppable force against an immovable object types. My favourite Sachin moment was not the innumerable hundreds that he scored, but his battle against the demon on the 3rd day morning. Dale Steyn was wrecking havoc with frightening spells of accurate outswing bowling at high speed. None but Sachin survived it. The battle between Dale Steyn, oozing aggression every ball, and Sachin Tendulkar, who remained steadfast despite being beaten probably more often than on any other day, was the stuff of legend. 6. AB 2-0 Steyn: IPL 2012 & IPL 2014: AB taking Steyn to the cleaners smoking 22 and 24 runs of two Dale Steyn overs, confirming to the world that the guy was indeed a freak. 7. Edgbaston, South Africa vs Australia: The greatest ODI match ever played. So near, yet so far for South Africa. The loss, which gave way to the now infamous Chokers tag. Whoddathunk that Klusener, who was batting like a dream till then, would have a brainfreeze! 8. India vs England, 4th test at Oval, 2011, the series where our batting line up, bar the wall, showed no spine. Dravid opened the innings, carried his bat for 146*. But that wasnt enough as we were all out for 300 and were asked to follow on. Enters Dravid again to a standing ovation! #KanlaThanni 9. KPs 149 at Headingley, 2012 vs South Africa. What swag! A top quality innings against a world class attack on a seaming, swinging wicket. The clincher being KP nonchalantly straight driving a 150 Km Steyn gun over his head for a massive six and his thenavattu maxx attitude after that! :D Whaddaplaaya! All of his shots in that innings are kanla othikara types. 10. Sehwag batting through for 201* against Sri Lanka at Galle 2008, in a total team score of 329. Mendis debut series where he spun a web around our batsmen. But thala Viru has a special liking to spinners, especially the ones who are introduced as mystery spinners. Mendis and Narine will vouch for that. With limited footwork, he played Mendis as a medium pacer and took him to the cleaners. Mendis vs Sehwag: 12.3 - 0 - 75- 0 Mendis vs The rest: 15.3 - 1 - 42- 6. I nominate fellow passionate CRICKETISM!! boys, Naresh, Arjun Ashok, Kowshik, Aishu, Aravindhan, Varadhan, Soupy (already tagged). Ambarish & Ananda Sachin fanboys Narayen, Ashwath, to relive Sachin, as I know most of their moments would comprise of Sachin Annan Tyru Maddy aka Trivikraman Madhavan, for his expertise on Dhoni & Indian matches To hear well compiled insights about the Wall from Wall fans, Hithesh Devasya, Akshay Cricinfo stats thala Madhusudhan, Cricinfo newbie Anuj, a football fanatic, who stopped watching cricket 12 years back, Wisden thala Karthik Lakshmanan Mandatory thalais: Harish & Girish
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 16:39:00 +0000