India vs England 2018: 3 instances when India gave England a taste of their own medicine

India played its first ever cricket match against England in 1932 at a time when India was still under the British rule. The 86 year old rivalry has seen many ups and downs and has also seen many great players from both the sides who prospered and reached new heights in the cricketing world.

Both the team enjoys an unmatchable fan following. There is always an excitement whenever these two cricketing giants meet. The England vs India cricket match is always a high octane clash with players bringing their emotions to the fore.

The fervour of the player gets better of him and the player completely gets swayed in the heat of the moment which leads to controversies which could have been avoided. In the pursuit of a win, teams apply different strategies and tactics. However, some of the tactics fail miserably and instead backfires.

Here, let us have a look at the incidents when the English players tried to infuriate the Indian players but India gave them a taste of their own medicine.

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3. Jellybeans controversy that tasted sweet to Zaheer Khan but bitter for England team

Second Test: England v India - Day Five

After narrowly drawing the 1st test at Lords during India's tour of England in 2007, India found them in a commanding position in the 2nd test at Nottingham. As a result of Zaheer's 4 wickets and Kumble's 3 wickets, England's team were dismissed for 198 runs in the 1st innings.

Riding on the half-centuries by the Indian top order, India were going great and had piled up 464 runs for 6 wickets thus having a lead of 266 runs. After the fall of Laxman's wicket, Zaheer Khan arrived at the crease and found jellybeans, a type of confectionery, the moment he arrived at the crease.

He tucked one off the wicket, but it arrived again after he had played a few balls. Zaheer felt insulted and reacted angrily in the direction of Kevin Pietersen waving his bat all over thinking that it was he who was behind it. They also had a few verbal exchanges.

This incident certainly infuriated the fast bowler as he bowled an inspiring spell and scalped 5 wickets in the second innings of England team. India went on to win the match and eventually the series in English soil. Zaheer was adjudged man of the match for his performance.

2. Ganguly's shirt waving at Lord's

One of the finest captains of Indian team, he is also remembered for his iconic shirt waving scene in the balcony of the Lords stadium after India's win in the Natwest series final against England in 2002.

Backdrop

3rd February 2002, Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai- Before the Natwest series in England, England visited India for 3 Tests and 6 ODIs. They lost the test series 1–0 and were trailing by 2–3 before the final ODI. Chasing 256 in the 6th ODI, India was in a comfortable position till the 37th Over.

Ganguly was dismissed in a bizarre fashion for a well-played knock of 80 runs which triggered a collapse. Hemang Badani tried to save the game for India, but the batsman on the other end didn’t provide any support to him. India needed 6 runs from last 3 balls with 2 wickets in hand. Flintoff who was bowling the final over, ran Kumble out and then dismissed Srinath off the next ball.

England team started celebrating but Flintoff did something more than that. He took off his shirt and ran around the pitch in wild celebration.

Flintoff's shirtless celebration at Wankhede

13th July, 2002, Lord's Stadium, London- Few months later, the Indian Cricket Team led by Sourav Ganguly went to England to play the Natwest Trophy which was a triangular ODI series between India, England and Sri Lanka.

After every team played each other thrice, India and England qualified for the finals to be held at Lord’s.

Riding on Marcus Trescothick's and Naseer Hussain's centuries, England had set a target of 326 in 50 overs. In reply, India were 146/5 after 24 overs with Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, Dinesh Mongia, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid back in the pavilion. An Indian victory was the last thing on anyone’s mind.

it was then, when the young duo of Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif stitched a 121 run partnership for the 6th wicket. Although Yuvraj didn't stayed till the end, Kaif held his nerve to steer the Indian side home with 2 wickets and 3 balls remaining.

India won the Natwest series final, and it was when, Ganguly took off his jersey and twirled it for some time at the famous Lord’s balcony. Since then, this iconic scene has been etched in the memory of the fans.

1. Flintoff sledges, Yuvraj mauls

The southpaw hits Stuart Broad for six sixes in an Over

The occasion was the World T20 encounter against England, the venue being Kingsmead, Durban, dated September 19, 2007. The bowler at the receiving end of a severe thrashing was, Stuart Broad.

Andrew Flintoff was bowling the 18th over and Dhoni was quick to give the strike back to his partner because he was timing the ball well. He hit two boundaries off Flintoff and the English all-rounder didn't enjoy that. Between the overs, there was a face-off with some verbal exchanges, which didn't go down well with the southpaw and fired him up.

And what followed was nothing short of spectacular.

Yuvraj, spurred by comments from Andrew Flintoff before the penultimate over, launched 6 sixes off Stuart Broad's over. He became the second batsman after Herschelle Gibbs (South Africa) to do this in international cricket and the first and the only to do so in t20 internationals.

Yuvi's 12-ball effort is still the fastest T20I fifty and also the fastest in any format of the game.

Earlier that month he was hit for 5 consecutive sixes by Dimitri Mascarenhas in an ODI series vs England.