Wake up in the morning, check out any news channel, any newspaper, any news site. The top news is the match report of a cricket encounter. Surprisingly, India did not play that game. Still its the top news story. How'z that?
The game had a hot build-up to it. Two teams playing for pride. The grand finale of an evenly matched series hanging imperiously at 2-2. Conditions were perfect on the most beautiful ground in the world - The Wanderers. The bloody cocktail produced an extra-ordinary game of cricket, in which a near-impossible task was made possible - not once, but Twice! Australia scored 434/4 in 50 Overs. The first time any team crossed 400. In reply, South Africa, back to their walls, chased and chased successfully! Can you believe it? NO. No one believed that this was possible. The only men who believed it were the 11 members of the SA team. And it is because of this belief that they were able to pull up a miracle. It was something that could happen only a few times in a century. It was a match to remember. A celebration of a sport. Two thoughts come to my mind here:
"Whether you believe you can do it or not, you are correct". And
"When the going gets tough, the tough gets going".
One performance stands up and away from the rest. On a belter where batsmen murdered all bowlers, Nathen Bracken produced a magical display of bowling. With 5-60 odd, he almost took the game away from the hosts. Ponting, Katich, Hussey, Smith, Gibbs, Boucher played well. They are big names - champions, really. But the guy, who in my opinion turned the game decisively in SA's favour was Van Der Wath. An unlikely hero who came in when the high hopes seemed dashed. And played a gem of an innings, a cameo that took SA so much close, that even a flurry of wickets in the end could not deter them from reaching there.
The margin of victory was the smallest possible: One wicket, One Ball. What a match! Cheers to the (Ex :-) ) chokers. And Cheers to the game of cricket. And while we congratulate South Africa, we must not forget the entertainment provided by the Aussies.
Cricket rocks. Bigtime.
- Tosh
The Trial
10 years ago
2 comments:
It's a day on which Cricket won. Proteas really deserved that victory. It is a different story that Aussies were without their ace paceman McGrath and ace spinner Warne.
That surely doesn't belittle South Africa's effort as they still have to do the job with Lee bowling. And chasing 434 seems next to impossible task.
The batmen won and the bowlers lost the match.
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