On 23rd March 2003, Sourav Ganguly won the toss and invited Australia to bat.
Chances are, if you’ve been anywhere near social media in the last few days, you’ll have been inundated with recollections of that match. Or if you’re an Indian cricket fan, you might have tried to block it all out.
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On a popular cricket subreddit, the Indian fans, in good humour of course, pretend this match never took place. Much like Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter, they describe it as “the match which we never speak about” – Australia just won the World Cup on their own.
Do we need to remember the 2003 World Cup final?
It’s a funny anecdote but it reveals the collective hold this match and its result had on Indian cricketing imagination. For the millennials who are now in jobs, paying off loans and perhaps taking care of families, the 2003 World Cup is a fond remembrance of a special time, an innocent time when all seemed good in the world. Watching Ganguly’s boys bounce back after a good start. Win one game after another in a spectacular run to the final. We dared to hope.
And yet it all came crashing down the moment Zaheer Khan bowled that first over.
Can you, then, understand why everyone who lived through that match is now seeking a shot at sweet, sweet redemption on November 19th, 2023?
From 2003 to 2011 to 2015
It’s not as India vs Australia haven’t clashed in World Cups since then. If you want to be pedantic, you can argue revenge was served already in 2011 when they clashed again in the quarter-finals where Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina wiped away some of the pain of 2003. Or if you’re an Aussie fan, you’ll point to the 2015 World Cup semi-final where Australia well and truly trounced India after putting up an imposing 328/7.
But we’re sports fans, right? Instinctively, we like to make connections, find patterns and create scripts when there are none. Hence, when Rohit Sharma comes out at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday, there will still be some fans murmuring under their breath: “Don’t win the toss and put them in”.
India are the new Australia
For once, though, let us put the emotion aside and focus on the realities of the situation. The point is that there has been a role reversal from 2003; India have now donned the role Australia played twenty years ago. The world has watched, at times quite unbelievingly, India’s indomitable, unparalleled, incredible dominance in this tournament. There is not a weak link in sight. India are the new Australia.
And Pat Cummins’ brave Australians? To be fair, they’ve played this tournament like India of 2003. They struggled at the beginning, lost their first two matches and then gamely found a new wind. They have dug themselves out of tough situations, found saviours when needed and gamely come this far. No, they are no pushovers.
Read: Why Australia’s entry into the final is no surprise
At the same time, they are no longer the same old Australia as well which brought fear in opposition hearts. They are a good team but put them beside India and you begin to understand why Rohit Sharma’s men are being considered such overwhelming favourites. It stands to reason that Australia will have to play absolutely out of their skins on Sunday to put it over India. They will back themselves, no doubt, because there has never existed an Australian team in any sport that does not have self-belief. Whether that self-belief will be enough is the question on Sunday.
For India, the situation is much more relaxed. While Indian cricket fans will chatter on social media and worry, within the team, you expect they’re much more at ease. There are no noticeable weak links, every player knows their role. The only thing they must guard against is complacency – as Glenn Maxell showcased in the match against Afghanistan, it only takes one special performance to ignite a team.
Instead of 2003, here’s a proposal to Indian fans: why not look back at a happier time? At a time when the country stood still and burst in celebration as a certain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won a World Cup with a six? Yes, for all you know, November 19th, 2023 could well be a repeat of April 2nd, 2011. De Ghumake 2.0, anyone?
from Firstpost Sports Latest News https://ift.tt/q3taTKz
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