India @ the World Cup

Once again a World Cup is just around the corner and the whole nation is praying for India to regain the cup that she won 24 years ago on a summer at the Lords.Much water has gone under the bridge after THAT day when Kapil’s Devil’s did the unimaginable to the invincible Windies. Balwinder Sandhu’s off cutter to take Gordon Greenidge and Kapil’s awesome catch to dismiss Richards are some of the images that would give goosebumps to any Indian. (Normalcy was restored after the World Cup when Windies thrashed India in Tests after the World Cup)In 1992, we beat Pakistan who were the eventual World Champions. Javed Miandad jumping up and down like a monkey to mock Kiran More was one of the funny sights of 1992.In 1996, India was done in by a Jayasurya blitzkrieg in the league matches. A match that saw a poor Manoj Prabhakar bowl spin and marked the end of his career. India progressed to the Semi’s but Aravinda de Silva was India’s tormentor and soon the Kolkotta crowd found India’s spineless performance too difficult to digest and the match was awarded to the Lankans when India were 120-8. A crying Vinod Kambli walking back at the Eden Gardens was in the front pages of every newspaper the next day.In 1999, Zimbabwe led by Olonga upset the Indians in the league matches. And in the Supersixes the Aussies beat us thanks to an opening spell from Mcgrath. Jadeja scored a ton (and hit a pigeon during the knock) even though it was in a losing cause. This was the same World cup when Sachin Tendulkar came back to do team duty before even the embers of his father’s pyre had died. A masterful 140 albeit against the Kenyans with bat pointed skywards was a very poignant moment. This was also the World Cup where India took Lanka (Vaas, Murali & co) to the cleaners when Dravid and Ganguly took India to a mammoth 376 @ Taunton. Ganguly scored a massive 183.In 2003, we reached South Africa with our confidence at its nadir. India had just lost an ODI series 5-2 in New Zealand. Not a lot of people gave India a chance. India’s match with Holland proved the players still rusty.England came and Ashish Nehra swung his way to the record books with a superb spell of 6-23 – the best spell in a World cup. (Few days later Mcgrath rewrote the record books against Namibia.). India took sweet revenge on the Kiwis by keeping them to 147 and reaching the target with many an over to spare. Once again India thrashed Lanka and progressed to the Semis where Ganguly’s ton helped India overcome Kenya. The final approached and the expectations were predictably gargantuan considering the fact that India had defeated Australia couple of times. The first over of Zaheer Khan was a sign of things to come. 19 runs leaked. Hayden and Gilchrist took the attack to Srinath and co. Harbhajan briefly disrupted the Aussies. Enter Ponting and Martyn. They thrashed all the bowlers to all parts of the park. Srinath and Zaheer resembled club bowlers. Result – Aussies made a mammoth 359. During the drinks break, Farooq Engineer mentioned that this could be the day when Sachin Tendulkar might put score a double hundred. Wishful thinking it proved when he got out for a low score. 360 was always going to be too much with Mcgrath at his best. Sehwag saved India the blushes and India ended the match with a respectable 232 but with their egos and morale badly thrashed. The thumping took away the sheen of India’s final entry.2003 also marked the entry of cricket entertainment of another kind - Sony MAX unleashed a bomb. Mandira Bawdy in her noodle straps and peek-a-boo sarees wowed the Indian men (for obvious reasons) and brought more women tin front of the Idiot Box.Next: India's chances on this years World Cup