Eye of the spectator: An emotional fan's roller-coaster journey with Indian cricket 

The 2011 World Cup glory and the emotional intelligence of a cricket fan

Dhoni has hit the most famous six by an Indian batsman

Sometimes a true cricket fan is instinctive in nature and has the sixth sense to smell what is likely to come to be it good or bad. To cite an example, when India played their first match of the 2011 World Cup against Bangladesh, my instinct told me that India were going to win that World Cup. I could sense some pattern between that World Cup and the 1983 World Cup which India won against all odds.

For starters, Sehwag scored 175 in that first match against Bangladesh- exactly the same number of runs that Kapil Dev scored against Zimbabwe in 1983. Again, just like World Cup 1983, the final of World Cup 2011 was also slated to be played on a Saturday. Sreesanth and Piyush Chawla, the two lucky charms of India’s successful triumph of T20 World Cup in 2007 were part of the World Cup squad 2011.

Everything was falling in place and finally as forecasted much earlier by the pro-active fan, India won the World Cup for the second time in 2011. But the crazy fan doesn’t believe in revealing his findings in advance fearing hostile response.

Yuvraj Singh has contributed immensely to some of Indian cricket's greatest moments

A quirk of fate in the 2015 World Cup

In the same manner, the emotional intelligence of the cricket fan could easily get connected to a disaster waiting to happen. It happened in the World Cup 2015 in Australia. In the matches India played up to the semi-final, it was Mark Nicholas, the commentator, who conducted the toss proceedings and India sailed through to the semi-final winning every match on the way.

For the sentimental cricket fan, Damien Fleming was the bad omen in the semi-final of World Cup 2015

Suddenly in the semi-final, when one found Damien Fleming at the toss, the crazy Indian fan saw what was coming. He even thought it was a conspiracy against his team by the host broadcasting corporation to replace India’s lucky charm, Mark Nicholas. His worst fears were further confirmed when Dhoni lost the toss and Australia batted first. And that was it for Team India in the 2015 World Cup.