Your Cricket Your experiences of watching Cricket

[blockerdave]

My earliest cricket memories are England’s terrible summers against West Indies (1988), and Australia (1989).

Why on earth that inspired me to fall in love with the game, who knows!

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

2006 India-Pakistan ODI at Kanpur, where Afridi hit a 45-ball 100

At the age of 6? Wow! I did not know about a single rule of Cricket until 2008/09 India tour of New Zealand as a 9 year old. Sri Lanka tour of India 2009 was another series I followed a bit, really enjoyed Yuvraj destroying the Lankans at Mohali. I literally missed that Rajkot match where Sri Lanka nearly chased down India's 414 in ODIs. Was cursing myself until I watched a 2.5 hr long highlights of the game in 2013/14.

 

[Neo 7]

2.5 hr long highlights of the game in 2013/14.

Nice time interval for a highlight ...

 

[SaiSrini]

Revisiting this thread after long....

The kind of chatter that used to happen in those late 90's era was something else. Those days, Pakistan were really strong and their contests with India will be electrifying. There was this chatter amongst us kids in those days that 'Pakistan cannot be beaten on a Friday' since its the day of Jum'ah (The special Friday prayer of Muslims). And inevitably to our disappointment, it will most often happen that way.

The 1999 WC was just such a bittersweet experience... Being kids, we didn't really have the maturity to understand that Sachin's dad had passed away. When that defeat to Zimbabwe happened, we argued our guts out that Sachin should not have left the team during a WC (yeah, those days when we immature kids hugely romanticized this bullcrap idea of 'national duty'). That defeat to Zimbabwe was so hurting.... but you know what? it all got blown away super soon when we yet again beat Pakistan in that Super 6 clash. Beating Pakistan in those days felt amazing since they're really good (I really miss the Pakistan of those days; the Anwars, Afridi, Ijaz, Inzy, Salim Malik, Akram, Waqar, Aquib, Saqlain, Mushtaq Ahmed, etc. Wish they get back there).

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

I really miss the Pakistan of those days; the Anwars, Afridi, Ijaz, Inzy, Salim Malik, Akram, Waqar, Aquib, Saqlain, Mushtaq Ahmed, etc. Wish they get back there.

You left out Shoaib Akhtar.

Tbh I've never seen Akhtar bowl in a live match. I don't know the kind of goosebumps one would've faced while watching him bowl. The fastest and the most threatening bowler I've seen in my life on a live broadcast has to be Mitchell Johnson. KP seemed to be the only batsman who seemed to take on him in that 2013/14 Ashes.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

From the time when I felt this sport is something interesting i.e, during WC11. But I have researched a lot & can say that I updated with some sorts of info about the game from 90s till date.

Sorry for quoting your old post @PresidentEvil

Was just going through this thread once again. I can certainly relate to how you look at the game. More so due to the fact that both of us belong to the same age group.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

For starters,

I have changed the title of this thread from "When did you start following Cricket seriously?" to "Your experiences of watching Cricket"

Now what it does is you can discuss every memory of yours regarding Cricket that you've watched for the years.

Let's make this thread great again!!!!!

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

I'll start this off with one of my memories.

This goes down to January 2013, we had just recently lost a Test Series at home to England and failed to beat England & Pakistan in the T20I series respectively. Dhoni was the leading run getter in the Pakistan ODI series that we lost 2-1 with a century and a couple of half centuries averaging 90+

Now come the England ODI series, I felt Dhoni was back at his destructive best and it would've been hard for England to bowl to him. In the 2nd ODI at Kochi, Chris Woakes on debut got out Rahane, Gambhir & Kohli in the Mandatory Powerplay. I felt yet another loss for India was coming. Raina-Dhoni pair were again up for a rebuild phase and put on some 80-90 runs together. Come the death overs to take India somewhere around 275 it required almost 8 an over in the last 10 overs. Dhoni and Jadeja well set after utilising the batting powerplay were looking in ominous touch.

I saw Dhoni consistently attempt that helicopter shot and all of them were just coming off. He hit like 4-5 boundaries with that shot. I could do nothing but just laugh off!! India got to around 270-280 with Bhuvi and Jadeja destroying the English batting order bowling them out somewhere around 120. It was one of the matches I really enjoyed after a while.

 

[NaracchiSaracchi]

My first memories were the beginning of the 1990's.
Benson & Hedges World Series
Mercantile Mutual Cup.
The domestic competition was stacked full of international players and the grounds were packed.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

This goes to the day when India were playing New Zealand back in early 2014. India came into the series as the No.1 ODI side in the world as per ICC rankings. We had a great series against Australia at home chasing 350+ on 2 occasions and dominated the West Indies. We went to South Africa where De Kock smashed 3 consecutive centuries while Steyn & Morkel just ran through our batting order in 2 of the 3 games while India did not get to bat in the 3rd game due to rains.

Now this New Zealand series was equally important considering the 2015 WC was to be held over here. Our bowling just lacked venom while our death bowling was pathetic! Corey Anderson & Ross Taylor were in form of their life and they clearly utilised this opportunity to feast on the Indian bowlers. New Zealand scored about 290 in the first game, 270+ in a 42-over rain affected match and the 3rd ODI resulted in a high scoring tie!

In this series India actually had to rely on Virat Kohli as far as getting big runs was concerned. Kohli scored a century (mind you this was his 1st century in a lost chase) in the 1st game and 70-odd in the 2nd game, he missed out on the third.

India usually comes late into an Overseas series and I felt after the tied match, they would comeback. And I was shocked that Dhoni chose to bat first in the 4th game and even asked Kohli to open the batting. Both of them proved to be a catastrophic failures as India were handed yet another Overseas series defeat. The same game Stuart Binny made his ODI debut and was pushed down to bat at no.8 while he hardly bowled any overs. Perhaps I was so frustrated and hugely disappointed as a Kohli-fan since he did everything possible to bail India out at every point in the series. And back then as a 14 y/o I felt Dhoni was done and India needs a new Captain.

This was one of those times where India had potential to beat most of the sides and win anywhere in the world as far as white-ball Cricket was concerned. But what they lacked was experience and that self belief.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

There's no full length video of Watson Vs Wahab, I even checked on Icc's official site.
I'm glad I got to witness it live.

Those days I used to have my 10th boards (on alternate days from 11am to 2pm). I had just reached home and had my lunch. Australia were half way through that run-chase and then came this magic spell from Wahab Riaz. He had me glued on my TV till the end of that game!

After that match ended one of my friend texted on a WhatsApp group that how Australia will also smash India like they did to Pakistan. So me and my other friends were teasing him that India were unbeaten and they bowled out every opposition that tournament till that day. Eventually it was another heartbreak in just 1 year after that boring 2014 WT20 Finale.

I felt like moving this post to this particular thread since it serves the purpose.