A Day to remember in CRICKET

March 12th 2006, a Sunday, my day starts off as usual. Well I had to get up early as had to go for a cricket match, but thanks to the rain gods, it got called off. And so after completing my morning chores I as usual log on the my notebook. My first hit in the day is always either my blog or http://www.cricinfo.com
Well I was feeling a bit sleepy but as soon as I saw the headlines I didn’t find a need for coffee to get me going. There it goes; it had to happen one day. The way the game is shaping up it had to happen. What had to happen? Well, crossing the landmark of 400 runs in a One day. The headlines read ‘South Africa wins the Greatest game’. Well firstly here there was the India-England series going on to keep you hooked up and parallely there was this great clash going on between SA-AUS. Two of my favorite teams in the circuit (prefer SA more though). This was the last match of the 5 match series, and AUS decided to bat after winning the toss. This was the same ground (Johannesburg) where the 2003 world cup was played and like then it was Ricky Pontings day at least the first part of the innings.

He went on to score a magnificent 164 runs and was ably supported by Kathich, Gilcrisht and Hussey (well I wonder what took Hussey so long to make it into the main team). Anyways Australia posted a mammoth 434 runs, 434 well the first thought that came to my mind ( though unrelated ) was that isn’t this the total wicket tally in tests by the all time greatest Kapil Dev. Well that apart, but seeing a team post that amount of score in the first innings itself is seeing the other team give up, but that was not to happen here especially under the leadership of Graeme Smith. This man has such a great head on his shoulders and is the best leader SA has got after Cronje.



There it goes, the chase started off in a typical fashion, first look of it gave the impression that SA were just playing to salvage some lost pride, as winning was far far away. To add fury to the fire Dippenear was out cheaply for 1 run and there enters Hershelle Gibbs.
Gibbs though a prolific batsman and one of the greatest fielders in the game today, is more famous for the crucial catch drop of the great Steve Waugh in the 1999 world cup that blew away SAF’s chances. I have always been a huge fan of SA and want these guys to win the world cup once. They had nearly made it in the year 99, but for the dropped catch by Gibbs. Well the importance of the catch lies in the fact that Steve Waugh walked up to Gibbs after the match and told him ‘Son, you didn’t drop the catch, but the World Cup’. Well that was past but im sure one person who can never forget that Is gibbs himself, and will always want to avenge that defeat.
Did he do that yesterday or what!!!!. He came into the crease as a different man, a man leading an army in a battle , a man who looked equipped to save the world from a calamity (Aussies winning time and again is a calamity for me). Well those massive hits are going to be etched in the hearts of Aussies for years to come. And to make matters worse for Aussises, he was dropped on 130 by Bracken ( Well 130 isn’t that a decent score in itself to get out , not exactly , looking at the way gibbs was batting I wanted him to go on and on… who didn’t ??



He scored 175 in 111 balls recording one of the greatest innings in the history of the game. South Africa saw the game through winning in the 50th over with just one ball to spare.
This was an answer by one of the greater teams in the circuit to the greatest in the league today. Gibbs, u are the name to watch out for in the next world cup.

I quickly downloaded the highlights and saw the whole match. Phew !! what a start to the day…