1) Saurav Ganguly Dhaka Final 1998(124 off 138)
After having an unbeaten record in the round-robin stage, India played Pak inthe final. The final was a stark contrast to the first few matches, since India was on the mat throughout the Pak innings. A fine century by Saeed Anwar gave Pak a total of 314(He hit 140 off 132). Ind played it down mainly due to Ganguly’s first century. He kept going strong till a delivery by Aaqib Javed shattered his stumps.
The reason why I felt this knock was the best was mainly because it signalled the best era of Indian cricket - the year 1998. And that good fortune carried on till we were beaten by Zimbabwe in WC 1999.
2) Tendulkar, Desert Storm 1998(134 off 131)
This was Tendulkar in the best form ever. He single-handedly mauled the Australians. Sad to see him struggle nowadays. He made sure that come what may, Australia will never conquer Sharjah. The other person who did that was Wasim Akram, with the ball though.
3) Tendulkar, the Shoaib-bashing, WC 2003(98 0ff 75)
If Desert-Storm saw Tendulkar at his graceful best, this match saw him at brute-force! That was the worst insult anyone could ever get on a cricket-field. Some bowlers have got it royally from the maestro(Douglas Hondo, Kasprowicz, Warne, Caddick). But this silenced not only him, all the Paks. Pak had a decent-enough score in this match. But it seemed tiny after this mega-bash. This was one knock that redefined the rules of cricket.
4) Adam Gilchrist, WC Final, 2007(149 off 104)
I felt like I was watching baseball! The first to get hit was Chaminda Vaas. Next the stick was given to Fernando. Malinga might not have been hit, but most of the time he bowled to Hayden, who wasn’t required to hit. When I saw the huge sixer off Muttiah Muralitharan, I knew for a sure who was going to win the World Cup. All bowlers were massacred as he left a trail of destruction. But for this knock, SL would have definitely won the WC. They had a better team altogether - batters as well as bowlers, and they also had a good chasing team.
5)(Candidate 1) Steve Waugh, WC 1999, Super6 vs S Africa(120 off 110*)
If they lost this match, they would certainly have gone home. Steve Waugh fought single-handedly all the time, and brought a victory where only defeat was possible. This match was the final stone in the building of the Australian juggernaut, that still conquers everything in WCs today. Ponting might be the most successful captain, but Steve Waugh built this legacy.
(Candidate 2) Inzamam-ul-Haq, Pak vs NZ semifinal, WC 1992 (60 off 37)
NZ had never seen defeat during this entire WC. They lost only 2 matches, both to Pak. Two matches in a row and their dream was shattered. The NZ team of’92 is not like today’s NZ. They were fearless and they actually whipped Aus. But they hit a huge obstacle in the form of Inzy. When he came in to bat, the match was literally over. They needed a hundred-odd from the last 10-so overs and he hit a huge chunk of it. At first it looked like he was fighting a losing battle, but NZ were shocked out of the WC, in their own backyard. What made it worse was that Pak was a fortunate survivor, since they wouldn’t have made it to the semis if Aus had beaten WI - in a match which Aus played only for pride. This knock by Inzy gave courage to Pak to win the WC’92.
There are some other great knocks which should have been included here. Kapil Dev’s 175*, Clive Lloyd’s century 1975, some ballet-dancing examples by Mohd Azharuddin/Mark Waugh, powerful batting by Viv Richards, brave batting by G Viswanath and the list goes on.
I chose these because they not only came in the toughest of circumstances, but they also had a greater meaning in inspiring their team. Selfless knocks like these are tailor-made for the crowd. Not for anything like personal records. The crowd has paid money to see cricket. Please don’t do defensive play. Moreover they are comparatively recent.
Rewind the clock back to WC’92. The NZ fans were staring in shock. Their all-conquering team was close to winning their FIRST(and probably only ever) WC. They actually deserved it. With elegant players like MD Crowe / Greatbatch etc they should have pulled it off. All because of Inzamam-ul-Haq.
WILL EVEN ONE NEWZEALANDER SAY THAT INZY DID NOT ENTERTAIN THEM THAT DAY?
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