Cricket - Making our lives into a dream

MS Dhoni hitting ‘that’ six to win India the World Cup was a special moment

Cricket is a big thing in India; it has got audacious power which has the ability to mesmerize its million followers. It has given us moments which have left us spellbound. It would not be wrong if we say that we literally worship this beautiful game. Nothing on this earth has given us a chance to unite and chant mantras for India’s success. It has given us those moments when anybody has hugged a nobody, when the lives in villages, towns and cities have come to a standstill.

Here’s a look at some of the emotional moments in Indian cricket in the last decade or so which has left us teary eyed.

India played Pakistan after a considerable time stamp in the 2003 World Cup. Any India-Pakistan match has loads of sentiments attached in addition to cricket. The team led by Sourav Ganguly did not have a great start to the world cup. But after a couple of horrendous performances Dada’s men never looked back. They took it one game at a time and kept on delivering magic on the field.

March 1 , 2003 and this was the biggest game in the World Cup. India had to chase some 280 plus odd runs and it indeed was tough. Doing it on a fast South African track against the likes of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younisand Shoaib Akhtar was not going to be a cakewalk. But Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar had some other plans in his mind. Right from the word-go, the Indian batsmen demolished the Pakistan attack. They did it quiet easily and what followed was a carnival. Streets went alive at midnight and why not, we had got a reason to celebrate Diwali in the month of March.

Who doesn’t remember the Joginder Sharma over? Oh wait, as a kid born in 1990s, we had seen people hitting six sixes in an over. But it was tough to imagine whether it was possible for an Indian to do it. Andrew Flintoff’s showdown with Yuvraj Singh enraged the latter so much that he ended up whacking Stuart Broad all over the park. It was one joyous moment which an Indian cricket fan can never forget. Yes, now coming to the finals of the inaugural World T20. India winning a World Cup in any format of the game was the dream of the millions. Misbah ul-Haq tried to dilscoop Joginder and Sreesanth’s catch gave Indians a chance to live their dreams.

Nobody had scored a double century in an ODI. Sachin Tendulkar did the impossible when he whacked the South African attack at a fiery strike rate. This would surely go down as one of the greatest moments in world cricket. Then there was the 2011 World Cup, after 28 years India did it on its home turf. You remember that moment or see the finishing moments of that final, and you can certainly feel a chilling sensation running through your spine.

We are so lucky to have cricket as a reason which makes us stand together for our country. Be it Ganguly taking his shirt off or the Gambhir-Afridi faceoff or Irfan Pathan taking a hat-trick in his first over in Pakistan, we have witnessed the impossible. And these were moments of ecstasy, moments which brought tears to our eyes, moments when every Indian stood together and vouched for a common cause ‘INDIA’.