“Rain, Rain go away, come again another day.”
It was perhaps the lyrics going around
in the stands with some fans all over the globe were praying to the God just
for seizing the rain break for a while to provide them the best chance of
mouth-watering Sri-Lanka and India 2002 Champions Trophy final contest in
Colombo. Spotlight was always on the tournament from the first day and to
finish it in that void fashion felt too bitter.
Couple of changes were witnessed by the
International Cricket Council (ICC) in the format of the competition. They had
divided those 12-teams into four groups with one side would qualify from each
group for the semis. Generally, we got 6-teams in a bunch of which couple of
them earned the promotion for the semi-final. But the new decision meant there
would be couple of teams for whom it might felt bit comfortable facing weak
teams. The new formula renamed it from “ICC Knockout” to “Champions
Trophy”.
The purpose of those tournaments in
those old days used to be making the game famous and stabilizing its root in
those backward countries. The first edition grabbed a great response in
Bangladesh whereas the second edition in Kenya had also done an appreciable job
to ensure that the next Champions Trophy would find its soil in a non-test
playing nation; although the head of the troops selected Sri-Lanka as the host
nation.
Colombo was scheduled to be the city
getting all the games. Pool 2 (India, England, Zimbabwe) and Pool 4 (Sri-Lanka,
Pakistan, Netherlands) were spread out in the R Premadasa stadium while SSC got
the Pool 1 (Australia, New Zealand, Bangladesh) and Pool 3 (South Africa, West
Indies and Kenya).
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Fingers were still on the fate of the
tournament as there was the issues of the sponsors from different boards with
some players were not eager enough to sign the contract before the tournament.
At-last when almost everything got settled in despite keeping some
disappointed, Pakistan asked the ICC for a late change in their squad and that
to a non-injury change what they didn’t get for all. So, for some players even
with the tickets to Colombo, they had stayed back in Lahore.
Phew!! The event ultimately began with
some good news figured out some of new rules; the debut of using TV umpires
(Third Umpires) for the refer of the LBWs and those edges.
India had come to the event with lots of pride and head high after their 2002 NatWest Trophy win. All the lads of the troops had the fair knowledge about their specifical role with high confidence under their belt. And when they met Zimbabwe in their first match, the same fighter again arrived in the rescue; this time adding 117 with Dravid (71) and an unbroken 84 with Anil Kumble. Coming out when the scoreboard flashed out with 87-5, that was a trimindous job from Kaif.
On This Day in 2002, scored my first ODI hundred - 111* v Zimbabwe at Colombo in the Champions Trophy.
— Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif) September 14, 2018
We were 87 for 5, added 116 runs with Dravid (71) & 84* with Kumble (18*) pic.twitter.com/99qbJoNTve
Andy Flower made his way to a lone
knock of 145, the haunting 1999 World-Cup game was knocking the Indians but
that didn’t take place as the opponents fell short by 14-runs in the end.
When England posted 269-7 in the
virtual quarter-final thanks to the 68-ball 82 innings by Alec Stewart, it
seemed like the wheels would come of this time as the records spoke out that no
team had chased more than 244 in the ground till then but Ganguly and Sehwag’s
firing innings wrote a new record as they chased the target with 63-balls to
spare.
Leaving some of the close encounters one
of which was between South Africa and West Indies, others appeared to be too
pale to witness. “Holland, Kenya and Bangladesh are not good enough to
play A games.” In his column for Indian Express, Ajit Wadekar wrote;
“It’s a sheer wasted of time seeing them play against Australia, South Africa,
Sri-Lanka or India.”
India was up against the Proteas in the
first semi-final as the former put up a decent 261-9 with Sehwag and Yuvraj
Singh adding half-centuries while Dravid missed the mark by one run. Though
Smith departed early, the long opponent was still to come and Gibbs form at the
other end was giving the Indians high chance of heart-beats.
The only positive sign was his cramps
and after a 119-ball 116, he had to retire out. The building all on a sudden
destroyed as South Africa requiring 49 off 40-balls at one stage lost by
10-runs giving more power to that Chokers Tag.
In the second semifinal, Sri-Lanka
after crashing the mighty Aussies for just 162 thanks to all the spinners went
on to promote the hosts for the final by 7-wickets with almost 10-overs to run.
The final was expected to be close
fighting. India surprisingly left Kumble and brought Srinath replacing injured
Nehra. The decision felt worst when Harbhajan ended with 3/27 and Sehwag
finished his full quota for just 32-runs.
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In reply of Sri-Lanka’s 244, India was
14-0 in 2-overs when the heavens opened up. Though, there was a reserve day,
some old-fashioned rules made sure that the game would be replayed instead of
being resumed.
This time, the blue-brigade picked
Kumble. With a better bowling performance, they stopped the hosts at 222-7.
When they reached 28-1 in around 8-overs, it started to pour down again for the
second time in 24-hours. It was the monsoon time in this country as no Cricket
game was possible in those puddles of water. Umpires shaked hands with both
captains declaring the no-result as the prize money of $300000 would be shared.
Interestingly, teams played for almost
110-overs and still found nothing to keep one ahead. The rule has obviously
changed but if they used a bit of common-sense, the World might be able to see
the mouth-watering clash between the two Asian sides.
Brief Scores: -
First Day: Sri-Lanka 244/5 (50) (Sanath
Jayasuria- 74, Kumar Sangakkara- 54; Harbhajan Singh 3-27) vs India 14/0 (2)
Match abandoned due to rain.
Reserve Day: Sri-Lanka 222/7 (50)
(Mahela Jayawardene 76, Russell Arnold 56*, Zaheer Khan 3/44) vs India 38/1
(8.4) (Virender Sehwag- 25*); Match abandoned due to rain.
The 2002 Champions Trophy was shared between Sri-Lanka and India.
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