“Without discipline, there’s no life at all.”
Being discipline is the most needful as
a person or as a team in any occasion at any stage of life. Perhaps, fortune
favors the disciplined person or team too. But a collective carelessness could
push the team to the wrong side which has no dictionary words to get expressed.
The 8th match of the 1999 World Cup between India & Zimbabwe
had figured out how indiscipline and may be the overconfidence can break you
down.
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The curious format of the tournament
ensured hard penalty for the first-round defeats. After losing in the hands of
South-Africa in their opening game, the eyes would be surely on the regulation
victory against Zimbabweans. Unavailability of Sachin Tendulkar following
his father’s death shouldn’t make much difference between the sides as onus
was on the rest of the members of the group. But, the tale of next 7-hours
turned out to be a tough ask!!!
READ MORE : World Cup 1983 Final
In a partly sunny morning on May
19,1999, Zimbabwe captain Alistair Campbell winning the toss opted to bat first
for 50-overs though, India wanted to be on the field much more than that. With
the disciplined and experienced bowling line-up of Agarkar, Kumble, Srinath and
Prasad, India would surely hope to fold the red army for a mere total. And the
start was a familiar one.
Within the powerplay, India sent two
players but the stable batting of flowers ensured that others just required to
stay with him, with the extras both in runs and number of balls were mixing up
spice in the whole-hearted receipy serving before the opponents. The well
negotiated innings of Grant made a good platform for the others to follow. The
second highest scorer of the innings was the Indian bowlers themselves with
51-extra valuable runs and almost same number of balls. 16-no balls
still remain the untouchable record in World Cups. The very next day saw
Scotland throwing some happiness to the Indians delivering 8-more extras than
them.
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It would hardly be a surprise that the
Indian over-rate would be struggling so much. The rules of that time meant Ind
had been cut away 4-crucial overs from their resources when their chase would
resume. 253 in 46-overs at a RPO of 5.5 wasn’t going to be a cakewalk 22-years
back. This generation already tasting Hayden-Gilchrist, Sehwag show or Roy-Bairstow
would not mind it at all.
The ghosts of the extras were still
flying in the heads of the openers and rightly so, the Tendulkar-less Indian
side in just quarter of 4-hours were feeling the pressure of beating minnows
Zimbabwe. Ganguly and his poor luck ended into the throat of the
fine-leg whereas unfamiliar way of playing too many strokes by Rahul Dravid
came to an end by a brilliant catch. The catching practice to the slips by
captain Mohammad Azharuddin made it look difficult but not impossible with his
side were running at 56-3 in 9-overs.
A calm head was required at that moment and
Ajay Jadeja provided that with Sadagoppan Ramesh in his first World Cup was
middling the round shape product timing it excellently. One shot he expressed
through the covers for a boundary was totally eye-catching. At the 20-over
mark, Ind reached 122 for 3 with 131-more needed just over 4-run per over.
Ramesh got off to his half-century with
the raised bat received all the applause but a long way still was unfinished.
At that stage, what do you really want? Easy singles, make a big partnership,
someone scoring a daddy hundred and probably the onus was on Ramesh to carry his
side over the line but the game saw all that the Indians shouldn’t do.
After saving himself from a suicide of hitting a six dancing down the track
over long-off, he hit it straight to Murray Goodwin standing at deep mid-off.
Looking at the opposition bowling, Azharuddin might felt that his bowlers would
still have the ability to take them off.
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Jadeja’s presence in the crease didn’t
stretch for too long as Heath Streak trapped the Haryana man leg before to get
the tail on the 22-yard. Sending Ajit Agarkar before Mongia proved worst as the
brain fade of hitting the ball straight to mid-on and call for a run just to
engage in a careless run-out slipped them to 175-6.
A six and a four with super power by
the Indian Wicket-Keeper after getting demotion not only brought the run rate
under 6 but also watered the half-died lives of the fans and his mates. The
fate of two teams exchanged. A tight over by Grant Flower to complete his
spell lift up the asking run-rate which at last resulted into the wicket of
Nayan Mogia. Srinath after all wasn’t a bunny; in fact he could be really
handy and he proved it by a mighty swing to a pitched up Paul Strong ball
for half a dozen to relieve the pressure.
Singles and doubles were slowly
creating questions over Campbell’s head. 14-runs were needed in 3-overs with
the same number of wickets in the bag. The solid looking Robin Singh and scary
hitter Srinath seemed to be made it possible for them. Henry Olonga,
with his long hairs were brought back into the attack after going for 17-off
his first 3-overs.
7 required off 11 balls with 3-wickets in their bank. ‘You are kidding me.’ would be your words if I tell you the ultimate result now. Singh drove and the uppish shot stopped into the hands of the skipper. New man Kumble was brought with 6-required off 9. The next ball was played to the point but the over-throw by Grant strolled down to the boundary line with every Indian noise reached its highest peak.
With 4-left off 8-balls, Srinath after already hitting a six and a four, called finish it with a stroke but the evil in his mind saw him making a return to the hut with heads down. Venkatesh Prasad, with an honest effort tried his level best to keep the ball out to get Kumble back into the attack but the straight Olonga delivery hit him on the pads. The Zimbabweans went up and so did umpire Peter’s finger. With 3-wickets in a space of just six balls, the Henry fortune took the biggest turn on his head.
The ridiculous 8-hours were complete.
It had taken ultimate fate, discipline, over-confidence for the Indians to
snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. One discipline bowling wouldn’t draw
the picture they might be looking at now.
Brief Scores: -
Zimbabwe- 252/9
(50) [ Grant Flower 45, Andy Flower 68*, Extras-51.]
Revised Target-
252-runs from 46-overs due to poor over-rate.
India-
249 (45) [ Sadagopphan Ramesh 55, Ajay Jadeja 43, Henry Olonga- 3-22].
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