10 Magical Moments from the 90s which no Indian Cricket fan will ever forget

The 1990s can certainly not be considered as one of the best eras of Indian cricket. However, what made this period special for India was the presence of a few future legends who conjured up some magical acts on the cricket field which the country’s fans will never be able to erase from their memories.Here we explore the magic of the 90s with 10 of the most exhilirating cricketing moments for India from that era.

#10 Ganguly single-handedly wins the Sahara Cup vs Pakistan

Sourav won 4 Man of the Match awards on the trot

In an attempt to bring the two neighbouring countries of India and Pakistan together after some strained relationships even on the cricket field, a 5-match bilateral series called the Sahara Friendship Cup was organised at a neutral venue in Canada. The first series played in the year 1997 was won by India by a convincing margin of 4-1, but it was more Sourav Ganguly vs Pakistan rather than India vs Pakistan going by the turn of events that occurred.

Ganguly was in top form with both bat and ball and put up some great all-round shows in almost all 5 matches, in 4 of which he received the Man of the Match award. So there are no points for guessing who the Man of the Series was.

#9 India\'s Test whitewash of England in 1993

The spin trio of Kumble, Raju and Chauhan did most of the damage with the ball

It was one of India’s most dominating performances at home ever as they whitewashed an England side full of stalwarts like Gooch, Gatting, Stewart and Hick among others in a Test series. This series is particularly remembered more because it was the beginning of the Anil Kumble era as far as Tests in India were concerned. Kumble, in combination with Venkatpathy Raju and Rajesh Chauhan, left the English batsmen clueless as they succumbed to the spin trio throughout the series.

Also, it was a rare occasion when India had manged to win all Tests in one particular series and that too, in a manner which was downright humiliating for the opposition.

#8 The Srinath-Kumble show at the Chinnaswamy Stadium

The two Indian bowling greats showed their batting skills when it mattered most

One of the many triangular tournaments featuring India in the 90s was the 1996 Titan Cup which also had Australia and South Africa. In the group stage, South Africa were too good for the other two teams and beat them both convincingly on all occasions. So the fight was between India and Australia to pip each other to reach the final.

The only completed match between the host nation and the Aussies was played at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. The team from Down Under put 215 on the board helped by their skipper Mark Taylor’s 105. As was the case in those days, Sachin Tendulkar was waging a lone war while wickets fell at the other end. When he got out just 12 short of a hundred and India reeling at 164 for 8, the Bangalore crowd were in a stunned silence.

A loss looked the only likely result for India until two local lads decided that they would not let it happen. With both of their mothers watching the match from the stands, Javagal Srinath and Anil Kumble weaved an unbeaten match-winning partnership of 52 runs. The victory was enough for India to eventually qualify for the final against South Africa which they won.

#7 Mohammed Azharuddin\'s wounded tiger act at the Eden

Azhar crashes a square cut during his fighting knock

Before getting embroiled into the match-fixing saga, Mohammed Azharuddin was known as one of the greatest batsmen and captains India had ever produced. For most of the 90s, he was the flag bearer of the Indian team, along with Sachin Tendulkar, and played many knocks to remember. One of his best came in a Test match which India eventually lost quite badly, but not before Azhar had proved his masterclass.

India had conceded 400 plus in the first innings and fell into deep trouble as they were reduced to 152 for 6 on the second day with Azhar retired hurt to a Brian McMillan bouncer. When he returned to bat the next day, India were at 161 for 7 and needed a miracle. Like a wounded tiger, he pounced upon the South African bowlers and tore them to shreds in his belligerent century which came off just 74 balls. By the time he got out, India had reached a highly respectable 322 for 8.

#6 India\'s record breaking chase against Pakistan

Sourav Ganguly led the way as India chased down Pakistan’s score of 314

The Silver Jubilee Independence Cup played in Dhaka was a tri-nation tournament which featured neighbours India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Bangladesh were never going to pose a problem for either of the two teams and so the arch rivals made it easily to a best-of-three final. While India registered a thumping victory in the 1^st Final by 8 wickets banking on Sachin Tendulkar’s brilliant 95, Pakistan hit back hard in the 2^nd Final through a commanding bowling performance.

With things square at 1-1, both teams met in the 3^rd Final in order to determine a clear winner. Pakistan made the most of a flat batting deck and put up a mammoth 314 on the board leaving India to complete a record chase if they wanted to win. Tendulkar looked fired up from the start and blasted 41 from just 26 in a 71-run opening stand with Sourav Ganguly in just 8.3 overs. Although they lost Sachin to Shahid Afridi, Team India were undeterred in their cause as Ganguly and Robin Singh forged a 179-run partnership for the 2^nd wicket and took them closer to the Pakistan total.

But the fall of Robin Singh’s wicket brought about a mini-batting collapse for India as skipper Azharuddin, Jadeja and Sidhu perished without troubling the scorers much. To add to it, centurion Sourav Ganguly too lost his wicket for 124 in the process of trying to accelerate. With Hrishikesh Kanitkar and Javagal Srinath out in the middle, India needed 9 off the last over. The two of them managed to bring it down to 3 runs from 2 balls with Kanitkar on strike to Saqlain Mushtaq. To the disbelief of all, the southpaw pulled off a slog sweep against the spin which raced away to the boundary and led India to victory with just one ball to spare.

At that point, India’s 316 was the world record for the highest chase in ODIs.

#5 Sourav Ganguly\'s back-to-back centuries in his debut Test Series

‘Dada’ en route to one of his 2 centuries on debut

Among one of the most celebrated individual feats from the 90s comes the 3 back-to-back centuries that Sourav Ganguly scored in the first three Tests of his career. India never had a reputation as good tourists back then and that was proved during the 1st Test of their tour to England back in 1996 as they suffered an 8-wicket loss. A young Ganguly was drafted into the side for the 2nd Test at the ‘Mecca of Cricket’ and he did not waste any time in making an impact through a masterful 131 in India’s only innings of the drawn Test.

The 3rd and final Test of the series saw him combine with Sachin Tendulkar, who also scored 177, in a 255-run partnership on the way to another memorable innings of 136 at Trent Bridge. No one knew at that point that Sourav Ganguly would go on to become one of the icons of Indian cricket.

#4 India\'s final two games of the Hero Cup 1993

Team India’s victory lap after winning the Hero Cup in 1993

One of India’s significant ODI series victories in the early 90s was the 5-nation Hero Cup in 1993 which also featured West Indies, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. With Zimbabwe predictably out of the equation after the round robin stage, the other four teams made it through to the semi-finals. India were pitched against a strong South Africa side in the first semi-final at the Eden Gardens and managed just 195 after deciding to bat first.

The Proteas too struggled throughout their chase and were reduced to 145 for 7 thanks to some fine bowling by Anil Kumble and Ajay Jadeja. But a fighting partnership between Dave Richardson and Brian McMillan brought South Africa to within striking range, with 6 required from the final over. In a shocking turn of events, or so it was assumed, skipper Azharuddin gave the ball to young Sachin Tendulkar to bowl the last over. But to the delight of a stadium filled to the brim, he conceded just 3 off his 6 balls and won India the match by just 2 runs to qualify for the final.

In the bout for the Hero Cup title, India were faced by a formidable West Indies side featuring some of their future greats like Lara and Ambrose. After putting up 225 on the board, India were favourites to some extent; however, Brian Lara was threatening to take the game away during his 2nd wicket partnership with West Indies captain Richie Richardson as he raced to 33 without much trouble. It was the golden arm of Sachin once again that brought India back into the match when he bowled Lara out with the West Indies score reading 57 for 2.

The men from the Caribbean never really recovered from there as Anil Kumble went on to record his career best ODI figures of 6 for 12 and India claimed the Hero Cup.

#3 1996 World Cup Quarterfinal vs Pakistan

Venkatesh Prasad celebrates after blowing away Aamer Sohail’s off stump

The India-Pakistan cricket rivalry, which was at its height in the 90s, has given fans of both teams plenty of moments to savour. But for an Indian cricket fan, very few of them compare to the classic quarter-final of the 1996 World Cup. More than India securing a victory and progressing to the World Cup semi-finals, the greatness of this match is defined by two incredible instances that occurred while it was being played.

The first one came while India were batting first after winning the toss. Despite a good opening stand and a steady 93 by opener Navjot Sidhu, India were still looking in a position to settle for a below par score as they were 200 for 4 in 42 overs. It is at this time that Ajay Jadeja walked in to bat and completely transformed the face of the match. In the process of plundering 45 off just 25 balls, Jadeja tore into legendary Pakistani fast bowler Waqar Younis as he took 22 from one of his overs and hammered him to all parts of the ground. This propelled India’s score to 287.

Instance No. 2 occurred during the Pakistani chase of 288. Openers Saeed Anwar and Aamer Sohail had set the place on fire with their quickfire opening partnership of 84 runs, but India got the breakthrough thanks to Saeed Anwar top edging a Srinath short delivery. Aamer Sohail, at the other end, was threatening to take the game away from India as he reached his half-century.

Probably the biggest mistake Sohail made in his career was to gesture to lanky Indian pacer Venkatesh Prasad to fetch the ball from the boundary. What happened on the very next delivery left everyone stunned as Prasad uprooted the Pakistani southpaw’s off stump and gestured at him to go back to the pavillion. The deafening cheer that followed at the packed Chinnaswamy stadium said it all.

Pakistan never really recovered after that and India recorded a famous victory by 39 runs to progress to the semi-final.

#2 Anil Kumble\'s 10-wicket miracle vs Pakistan at the Kotla

Kumble completes his dream performance by getting his 10th wicket

A bowling performance which no one will ever be able to surpass as you cannot take more than 10 wickets in a Test innings, can you? It was possibly the greatest display of Anil Kumble’s masterclass when the claimed 10 for 74 against arch rivals Pakistan at his favourite ground, the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Delhi. The only other occasion of a bowler claiming all 10 wickets in an innings had come way back in 1956 and that is why Kumble’s feat becomes even more magical.

He had already taken 4 wickets in Pakistan’s first innings and had his tail up because of that. Moreover, India had also batted quite well in their 2nd innings and posted a huge target of 419 on the board for their neighbours to chase. The Pakistanis were cruising at 101 for no loss with more than a day’s play left and were threatening to pull off an unlikely victory. But ‘Jumbo’ had completely different ideas which probably even he did not know of.

Within 36 overs of Kumble picking up the first wicket of the Pakistan innings in the form of Afridi, the visitors had folded up for 207 with the figures of the Karnataka leggie reading 26.3-9-74-10.

The whole country went into a frenzy as they lauded Anil Kumble’s dream effort and also cherished the fact that it had come against their most fierce rivals, Pakistan.

#1 Sachin Tendulkar\'s Twin Centuries vs Australia at Sharjah

Tendulkar’s heroics in Sharjah proved too hot to handle for the Aussies

Sachin’s ‘Desert Storm’, as his back-to-back centuries in Sharjah against Australia are fondly known, is possibly the greatest memory of the 90s for an Indian cricket fan. Although the Coca Cola Cup triangular series was just one of the several ODI tournaments that were played back then, the stakes were high due to the involvement of two very popular cricket teams in India and Australia and also because the quality of players who were competing with each other was among the best of that era.

Australia had eased into the final of the tournament winning all their games and so, it was a rat race between India and New Zealand to qualify as they had beaten each other once. In the last league game, Australia notched up 284 batting first thanks to a rare century by finisher Michael Bevan. India needed to get 254 to reach the final on the basis of a better run-rate; this was further revised to 237 off 46 overs due to a dust storm stoppage.

It was clear from the outset that if there was one man who could take Team India to the final, it had to be Sachin Tendulkar. And he did not disappoint as he went on to play an innings of a lifetime, racking up a magnificent 143 off just 131 balls and took his team across the line even though the match was lost.

But just when everyone was thinking the Master Blaster was done for the tournament, he came up with a repeat performance in the final as well, scoring a stroke-filled 134; only this time it led India to a historic win against the Aussies which is talked about even till this date. The most important highlight of both knocks was the way in which Tendulkar decimated the Australian bowling attack, being particularly severe on the legendary leg spinner Shane Warne and pacer Michael Kasprowicz. Many still consider these two centuries to be the greatest among all the 49 Sachin scored in his ODI career.