Top 5 game changing moments in cricket

2. Mike Gatting’s attempted reverse sweep against Australia in World Cup final 1987:

When the English team took on Allan Border’s men at Eden Gardens, Calcutta in the 1987 World Cup final, the Aussies were the clear underdogs. Not many gave them a chance to win their first ever World Cup. Of course, both the teams had never won it before and the world was waiting for new champions to get crowned.

Australians took the crease first and made a fighting score of 253, faring quite well with the bat. England began their reply in style and with just two wickets down at 135, they seemed to be coasting through their innings. Mike Gatting was batting at about run a ball rate and appeared to have comfortably settled at the crease. It was then that Border made a gamble by bringing himself on to bowl some left arm spin.

Mike Gatting, who was a wonderful player of spin himself, should not have found a bowler like Border too tough to handle. But he did something which was inexcusable. All of a sudden, he tried to play a reverse sweep off a ball which pitched outside his off stump. This shot, which was totally uncalled for, transformed the day into a doomsday for him and his country. The ball got the edge of his bat and ballooned off his shoulders, leaving the fielder to take almost a juggling catch in the end. The English team never recovered from this dismissal and collapsed midway, losing out to the Aussies.