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If i remember correctly, our first terminal exams was at hand.. and still i managed to take permission from my father to watch this crucial match at my friend's home (whose parents were out of station)... after all the cheering.. abusing and doing all kind of hooligans act is not possible at home..
So we all 5 friends joined at Saurabh's home, and the match started !!
India won the toss and invited SL to bat... as we all know due to heavy dew fall in kolkata it is always be difficult to bowl at second innings.
2nd ball of Srinath and Kaluwitarna (dangerous hard hitting batsman) top edged to third man and Manjrekar took a very good catch... we all started dancing... we are on right track...
the next to next over.. Srinath again done the magic.. and the most dangerous batsman in 1996(and still he is) world cup Jayasuriya was back to pavallion..
what a start bowlers had given us.. with 85/4 we were pretty much sure that india would wrap it up soon.. but some good partnership(s) between Ranatunga and Roshan Mahanama and then with tilakratne... allowed them to put decent 251 target on board for India.
Although 251 was competitve target on that time.. but we were less worried(After all we had Sachin and very strong batting line up with Jadeja coming at 6th down) and was too excited to watch our batsman on the field..
Start was not very good.. Sidhu come back without making any disturbance to scoreboard but Sachin... yes he was there... so were relaxed !!
He was connecting ball pretty well and Manjrekar at other end was supporting him..although he was very slow in run making.. but when u have treat to watch Sachin's batting you could ignore anything else.. Sachin's completed his 50;we all applauded and he was looking good against the Murali and Vaas.. and then Jaisurya came to bowl !!
Sachin's tried to charge him and comes down the track and ... and ball turns by a mile and he missed the line completely.... Our hearts pounded like somebody hit it with hammer.. and he was out... there was pin drop silent in room... but our hope were still rock solid(on the paper atleast).. he had given team a good 98 run on board...
But the next 10 hours.. changed the course of match..
Azhar gave return catch to Dharmsena like a classic catch practice... and jaysuriya on that day was turning the ball superbly.. he has surprised us and Jadeja with the ball which moved around his leg and disturbed his middle stumps... we all were shocked.. it was unbelievable experience.. Someone from us stood up and switched off the TV.. but we again switched it on to see some miracle.. and we found people were hurling bottle(s) and other stuff to ground; SL player were going back to pavallion.. Commentator were started speculating the outcome of this fiasco..
after 10-15 mins Kambli and Kumble again came down to ground.. but the agony and disappointment was so high that ultimately referee had to call it off...
Kambli was coming back in tears... he was not alone... whole nation was crying.. we switched off the TV Set and we all broke out.. we were crying like somebody has died... yes it was.. it was our hope.. our faith.. and passion for cricket...
I stopped following cricket for next 2 years...
the very first match which i watched since then was the debut match of Robin Singh against Aus.
Am still watching following cricket.. but somehow the madness of cricket is now missing inside of me....
A flashback... worth to write(for me atleast) and worth to remember once again !!!
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