Why every Indian should be proud of these moments in cricket
This is neither the national sport nor a religious festival, yet the cricket fever grips every Indian's soul and spirit. From a Test series to a one day international (ODI) match, cricket fans across the country just can’t get enough of the game whose first rule book was written in 1744. Let’s take a look back at what avid cricket followers feel were the proudest moments in Indian cricket.
1. First Asian country to play the sport: In the year 1932, India played its first Test match; two decades later Pakistan joined the Test league.
2. India’s foreign tours in 1971: Under the captaincy of Ajit Wadekar, India’s win against the West Indies in the Test series was one of its earliest remarkable victories against a cricket giant on a foreign land. Sunil Gavaskar, with 774 runs, and Dilip Sardesai, with 642 runs in the series, started a new chapter for Indian cricket in the international arena. Later that year, India also won a Test series against England.
3. World Cup victories: Though India was unlikely to match the West Indies at the 1983 World Cup final at the Lord’s, Kapil Dev took India to victory with his impressive leadership skills. Team India lifted the trophy again in 2011 at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai after winning by six wickets against Sri Lanka.
4. First ICC World T20 champions: Though empty roads and anxious crowd at local tea stalls is commonplace at every India-Pakistan match, the anxiety of cricket fans reached its zenith as the two teams competed against each other at the ICC T20 World Cup final at Johannesburg. India won by five runs to become the first world champions of T20.
5. Eden Gardens: India’s historic victory by 171 runs against Australia in Kolkata in 2001 heralded a new era in Indian cricket. Forced to follow on, a 376-run partnership between VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid laid the foundation of India's famous victory. The 2001 Eden Gardens Test proved to be a turning point for the Indian cricket team.
6. Anil Kumble takes ten-wickets in an innings: The legendary leg-spinner bowled himself into the record books in the Delhi Test against Pakistan in 1999, when he became the first player after England's Jim Laker to take all the ten wickets in a single innings. Kumble returned figures of 10/74 in Pakistan's second innings and crafted India's 212-run victory.
7. Six sixes: Ravi Shastri put up an impressive performance on January 10, 1985 by hitting six sixes in a single over. This brought him close to breaking another world record — the fastest ever double century in first class cricket. Yuvraj Singh became the second Indian to achieve this historic feat when he hit England's Stuart Broad for six sixes at the T20 World Cup in 2007.
8. Master blaster: Sachin Tendulkar, a living legend is the highest scorer in both Tests and ODIs. Not just that, his multiple records were commemorated by the Guinness World Records last year.
9. Sultan of Multan: On March 29, 2004, Virender Sehwag played one of his best matches at the Multan Cricket Ground when he scored a triple hundred in a Test against Pakistan. At 25, he became the first Indian cricketer to accomplish this feat. Sehwag went on to score another triple century in Tests, this time against South Africa and remains the only Indian to have scored a Test triple hundred.
10. Rohit Sharma: He created history by scoring two double centuries in ODIs. By amassing 264 runs in 173 balls, Rohit Gurunath Sharma became the highest individual scorer in ODIs. He even broke the record for scoring the highest number of fours and sixes in a single ODI.
11. Dhoni’s captaincy: Born in Ranchi, Mahendra Singh Dhoni is known for turning dreams of avid cricket fans into reality as the captain on Indian cricket team. He took India to victory at three ICC tournaments — the first ever Indian captain to have done that. It all started in 2007 when India became the first country to lift the World T20 trophy. He later led the team to victory at the ICC World Cup in 2011 and Champions Trophy 2013.
12. NatWest Trophy victory in 2002: The young and raw duo of Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif helped India chase down a mammoth 325 against England at the Lord's. In those pre-T20 days, overhauling a 300-plus score, that too on foreign soil, against a top opposition was unheard of, especially for Indian teams which used to crumble overseas. That match, however, would be remembered as much for Indian captain Sourav Ganguly taking his shirt off and twirling it over his head as a celebration of the victory, and marked a coming of age of Indian cricket.