1998-2018 : 20 years of cricketing memories

It was April 24, Sachin's Birthday. He is not just a hero but God to many Indian fans.

20 years from now on that very day Sachin scripted victory for India in Coca-Cola Cup at Sharjah and that is how I was introduced to the emotion(We Indian see cricket as an emotion). Cricket. 20 years have passed and the game has given me enormous moments. All these have worked as happiness boosters for me. I know all other cricket fans down here have gone through situations that were not very encouraging in their personal life and it was cricket that brought them back to a lively life.

I am thinking of scripting all the best memories, cricket has given us, in a small book. The idea is to relive best 100 matches of the last 20 years. I know we are living in a digitised world and we have clips of almost every match available. We can enjoy them too, but those TV clips will not have the emotions going on and around our minds while we were watching them.

I can understand or can feel the heart beats of every Australian fan when England beat Australia by 2 run in 2005 Ashes. Every NZ fan will remember the triple century that McCullum scored against India after they were 5 down for some 90 odd runs. Well I too had enough of memories like that.

My plan is to include 100 best matches in my book with 70% Test matches and 30% One day games. Maybe I sound a bit orthodox to many, by not including T-20 games but for me they are just like an Item-Number in movies.

I want all of you to come on board on this. I will include minimum 1 fan from each cricket playing country in the editing section of the book. Please help me in reliving the memories. It will take time but I think we can recreate it in one year or so.

The initial requirement is every one is free to post the game they think is the best in last 20 years and also mention your real life situation associated with the game. We will work on other issues and also discuss what all we can include once we get started.

I really need volunteers who will work with me in selecting 100 best games, which is really a difficult task.

I request alfie, msp, kp_f, CaledonianCraig, The Loaded Dog, SirFredPerry, Dolphin Ziggler to please come on board to help in selecting the matches. Though I have mentioned few names but other people can also come on board. May be we could start framing the book from June this year.

All of you can connect me here Subhranshu Kumar or Whatsapp me on +919955929195 if need a personal discussion.

A very Thank you guys. I hope this project ends in success.

The 2005 Ashes Series had five great Tests (some true classics) in there. I also recall on NZ's last tour of England a great test where I think McCallum butchered a big 100 to put NZ well on top and the Ben Stokes reciprocated with a lightning fast century to win the test for England - pretty sure it was at Lords.

Another great test (may have been more than 20 years ago) was an England match in South Africa that ended in twilight with Graeme Thorpe hitting the winning runs as South African players protested at the lack of light.

Not the best, but would not want it to be forgotten.

Pakistan v England , 3d and final test, December 2000. After the previous 14 turgid days the series burst into life on the last day. Pakistan bowled out for a double figure score (80?), England have 40 odd overs to score 176 ish. Moin Khan  looks to slow down the over rate and wait for the dark. In near Stygian conditions Bucknor refuses to take the team's off and Thorpe and Hussein see England home.

LondonTiger wrote:Not the best, but would not want it to be forgotten.

Pakistan v England , 3d and final test, December 2000. After the previous 14 turgid days the series burst into life on the last day. Pakistan bowled out for a double figure score (80?), England have 40 odd overs to score 176 ish. Moin Khan  looks to slow down the over rate and wait for the dark. In near Stygian conditions Bucknor refuses to take the team's off and Thorpe and Hussein see England home.

Ah my mistake. It was Pakistan not South Africa. That was the match I was trying to think of.

CaledonianCraig wrote:

LondonTiger wrote:Not the best, but would not want it to be forgotten.

Pakistan v England , 3d and final test, December 2000. After the previous 14 turgid days the series burst into life on the last day. Pakistan bowled out for a double figure score (80?), England have 40 odd overs to score 176 ish. Moin Khan  looks to slow down the over rate and wait for the dark. In near Stygian conditions Bucknor refuses to take the team's off and Thorpe and Hussein see England home.

Ah my mistake. It was Pakistan not South Africa. That was the match I was trying to think of.

"A brilliant victory over bad tactics." The 91 run partnership between Hick and Thorpe snatched the unbeaten record of Pakistan in Karachi and also ended the 39 years drought for England. No doubt Pakistan was a brilliant side those days.

Well this will surely make into the 70 test I will include in the archive. THANKS CaledonianCraig and LondonTiger.

Sounds like a great idea...

Will put thinking cap on.

alfie wrote:Sounds like a great idea...

Will put thinking cap on.

Many Many thanks man. I along with one of my friend in India are on it. It is really encouraging to have you on board. I have different ideas to shape the 20 years archive to make it interesting for every neutral fan. I will soon post them here.

Thanks Again man.

This is a great idea - some below

Sri Lanka vs England, Headingley, 2014 - where Anderson got out with two balls left in the day, after Moeen had batted all day to save the game

India vs South Africa - Johannesbury, 2013 - the test where SA nearly chased down 458 in the 4th innings

One day cricket wise - obviously the SA vs Australia game where 434 played 434
New Zealand vs South Africa - World Cup semi final in 2015 was an amazing game too

T20 cricket - England vs SA from the last T20 world cup, and India vs Bangladesh from the same tournament too were both great games

So : what makes a great Test Match ?  

Could be a great team playing ... though that often means the match wasn't too interesting in itself as they tend to crush opponents , usually too easily. The presence of a great player , performing at his top ? Or several great players , perhaps... or an otherwise unremarkable individual producing a brilliant matchwinning performance.   Or it could be the closeness of the scores ; the twists and turns of the match as one side then the other gains an apparent advantage...or the shock result achieved from nowhere on the last day...

Any and all of the above , I fancy.  The match I choose today isn't notable for any completely outstanding individual effort - though it includes some excellent bowling ; and one might quibble with the overall class of the teams involved : but I reckon it had interest , unpredictabilty and tension in spades...

End of June 2000 , Lords.  England v West Indies in the second Test of five - the tourists having already taken the first - by an innings - at Edgbaston.  A long time since they had lost a series in England  ; and after that start Jimmy Adams must have been confident of keeping their record.

Alec Stewart as stand-in England captain (Nasser Hussain having been injured at Edgbaston) must have fancied something in the pitch or the air would aid his bowlers (he had five fast or fast medium) for he sent West Indies in : when they reached 160/1 he could have been forgiven for having second thoughts
However at this point Sherwin Campbell fell to a careless hook for 82 (and few would have expected at this point that this would remain easily the highest individual score of the entire match) and the innings went into a steady decline in the face of some steady bowling from Darren Gough and Dominic Cork to finish the day on 267/9. Nothing remarkable about the day's play - but few could have imagined the fireworks that were going to explode on the morrow...

Friday brought a swift end to the tourist's inning as as Walsh fell to Caddick on the first ball of the day.  267 was far from what Adams would have wanted : but they had them on the board and England had to get them. In fact they got just half of them as Ambrose and Walsh combined to shoot England out in 48 overs for 134 - not one batsman passing thirty.  A handy and unexpected lead : if there was any concern for West Indies it was the relative ineffectiveness of their two back up seamers , Rose and King , as 8 of the wickets fell to the two ageing stars. But it was England  - whose supporters must surely have felt "here we go again" - who had the real worries.
It has to be said this was not a bad day for bowling - the light had brought about an early tea with England already eight down - but the pitch was essentially OK for batting and the crowd was surely unprepared for what happened next :

Andy Caddick was an enigmatic figure . Often looked - to be a little unkind - as something of a hack ; though he was also capable of a highly destructive spell - the trouble for his captains being they never knew when he was going to produce one.  Don't know if Stewart said something clever to him today : but he certainly decided to produce magic...in his second over he removed the two fifty makers of the first innings , Campbell and Hinds , for a combined total of 4 ; in his sixth he took the vital scalp of Lara to leave West Indies 24/4 (Gough having dispensed with the other opener in the meantime) .  Chanderpaul and Adams fell to Gough and Cork before Caddick continued , to get both Jacobs and Ambrose and the tourists were staggering at 39/8...when Cork finished the job the innings totalled just 54 ...in 26.4 overs ; Caddick with 5/16 bowling throughout.  
There was just time for England - needing 188 to win - to face seven balls that evening before the light had the final say.

Quirky statistical note : one of the very rare occasions where all four innings of a Test Match have taken place , in part , on the same day.

Saturday dawned - a little late as overnight rain held up the start - and although Ramprakash perished early , Atherton and Vaughan combined to take the score to 95 ; at which point one might think they were headed for a comfortable chase down...but nothing in this match seemed to happen to script.  Walsh removed Vaughan for 41 ; and followed at intervals with the wickets of Hick , Atherton for 45  , Stewart and White to leave England 140/6.  Six wickets to Walsh : and now at last he got some help as Rose took his only wicket of the match - Nick Knight , the last of the recognised batsmen - and still thirty nine runs left for the bowlers to find...
Ambrose hadn't taken a wicket ; but that didn't mean he wasn't bowling well : his relentless pressure was a big factor in Walsh's success. Just one run per over from the big man's 22 overs in all in this innings ; and when he eventually did strike to send back bowling hero Caddick England still required 28 to win.  At last West Indies seemed to have the advantage ...

But even the greats get tired ; Ambrose and Walsh couldn't bowl forever and Adams had to use a bit of Rose ...to the delight of the feisty Dominic Cork who hoisted him for six and four as he dominated a ninth wicket stand with Darren Gough to delightedly hit the winning runs and finish with thirty three not out (four fours and a six) which combined with his seven match wickets earned him a MoTM in his comeback Test.  Walsh didn't really deserve to be on the losing side with 6/74 , to make ten for the match. But although Colin Croft was adamant that West Indies had thrown a game away rather than England being particularly clever I think they deserved their victory for continually fighting back from apparently desperate positions to finally take the spoils.  And certainly it proved a turning point in series and team rivalry : England went on to take the series 3-1 and have generally dominated their former conquerors in the years since.

On a side note : for all the heroics over these three days , the only England players to survive into the next "glory" years - the Fletcher/Vaughan period - were : Vaughan himself ... and debutant Matthew Hoggard - who otherwise might almost not have have been there at all as he took 0/49 in the first innings and was not called on at all in the second. He did make 12 in the first innings  ; but his second innings contribution was limited to sitting with pads on for half an hour chewing his fingernails...and perhaps his real value in the match was taking a good catch at fine leg to dismiss Campbell on day one :  which was actually where it all started...

1) Starved for overseas test match wins as a nation, the top-most Indian effort in last 20 years... has to be the Adelaide test win in 2002-03....against Aussie machine of Steve Waugh that was rolling everyone at their peak

India rallied after conceding 550 runs in first inning on the back of VVSL & Dravid's batting...the latter cracked a 200
and then Agarkar immortalized himself in the annals of Indian cricket by taking a 6-for leaving a 240ish chase which India scampered thru to set history

http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/15119/scorecard/64060/australia-vs-india-2nd-test-india-tour-of-australia-2003-04


2) Headingley 2002 on a green seaming pitch India won the toss and very boldly chose to bat as they had gone in with rare 2 spinners Kumble & Bhajji in an overseas test..... and wanted to give their spinners a chance of blowing the 4th inning

Dravid again scored a 150 almost and had a 200 run stand with Bangar playing the inning of his life as an opener and wore off Eng's attack in helpful conditions

and then Tendulkar and Ganguly made merry with 100s, at one time in last session going on rampage at 10RPO....and fielding Captain Hussain called for light

India won by an inning as Bhajji and Kumble plucked out 11 wickets between them

http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/15349/scorecard/63999/england-vs-india-3rd-test-india-tour-of-england-2002