Mates Why Sachin Score So Heavy Against Minnows Of This World

Who has played one of the most crucial innings in the Cricket World Cup?

This man deserves a mention and that too an honorable one when people talk about the most crucial innings in world cup history. ARAVINDA DE SILVA​Sri Lanka felt understandably bitter and cheated when Australia and the West Indies forfeited their respective Group A matches in the 1996 World Cup than risk playing in the trouble-torn Colombo. The feelings of the islanders was echoed by Information Minister Dharmasiri Senanayake who reacted to Australia’s win over the West Indies in the semi-final, by saying that it gives Sri Lanka an opportunity to “teach a lesson” to Mark Taylor’s Australians in the final.Sri Lanka got into quick trouble when they began their reply. They lost their two turbo-powered openers, Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharana, with just 23 on the boardAND COMETH THE MOMENT AND COMETH THE MAN​Now the team was looking at him to play the innings of his lifetime in Sri Lanka’s biggest day in international cricket. Aravinda did not let his team down. He was in command from the very first ball he faced. It was an extension of the form he exhibited in the semi-final against India, when he walked in to bat at No 4 with the score on two for the loss of Jayasuriya and Kalu, and blazed his way to 66 (off 47 balls) with 14 boundaries. Aravinda’s footwork was flawless, his timing was sweet and his sense of picking the gaps was a lesson in geometry.Aravinda de Silva was the hero on the big night, following up his 3/42 and 2 catches with a sterling 107 as Sri Lanka became the first host nation to clinch the World Cup. After being invited to bat first, the Sri Lankan spinners restricted Australia to 241. Sri Lanka endured a shaky start, losing their in-form openers early, but Aravinda de Silva and Arjuna Ranatunga steered them to the finish line with ice-coolness.​ScorecardBrief scores:  Australia 241 for 7 in 5 overs (Mark Taylor 74, Ricky Ponting 45, Michael Bevan 36 not out; Aravinda de Silva 3-42) lost to Sri Lanka 245 for three in 46.2 overs (Asanka Gurusinha 65, Aravinda de Silva 107 not out, Arjuna Ranatunga 47 not out) by seven wickets.From underdogs to top dogs was Sri Lanka's story of the 1996 World Cup. Reversal after reversal in the previous five World Cups, the Islanders surged to the title, despite being wounded by off-field issues. Twenty-one years after playing the inaugural World Cup in 1975 as minnows, Sri Lanka were now the world champions of the abridged version of the game.​

What are some mind-blowing facts about cricket?

"Saurav's greatest strength is his mind.He is hard working not only in the nets but also mentally.He bounces back."                                                                                -Sachin Tendulkar"When you see an Indian side with Ganguly in the line-up ,you know it is game on.You don't have to like or dislike him.You have to respect him."                                                                                  -Steve Waugh"Saurav's best quality is that he has the ability to remain unperturbed even when he faces severe criticism"                                                                               -Javagal SrinathIndia currently is doing an excellent job wining all the matches from the group stage even after failing to perform in the test series against the Aussies and then again in the tri-series with Australia and England earlier this year.This reminds me of 2003 world cup.After suffering a huge defeat against black caps(New Zealand) earlier 2003 (2-0 in tests and 5-2 in ODIs) ,  India swiftly made it's way into the finals.Unfortunately India lost the final but what were the key factors that lead this young brigade comprising of Harbhajan, Zaheer Khan,Yuvraj Singh , Mohammad Kaif hardly in their early twenties to achieve such a mammoth task.Well there were many factors like introducing Sachin-Sehwag as an opening pair, team huddles etc.My favorite above all was calling Srinath back from his retirement!!!Srinath announced his retirement after a test match against West Indies in June,2002.But after looking at inexperience Indian bowling had at that time and that too before the world cup in the coming year,Ganguly requested Srinath to join the squad for India's tour of New Zealand. As a result Srinath took 18 wickets in ODI series even though India suffered 5-2 loss.But his form didn't stop here, he ultimately went on to add further 16 wickets in this tally  in the world cup which  played a key role in India's road to finals. His key performance were 35/4 against Sri Lanka in super six and then giving off only 11 runs in 7 overs with an economy of 1.57 against Kenya in the semi finals.But at last this was not possible without the vision of SAURAV GANGULY.    4 OUT OF 5  EARLY WICKETS WERE TAKEN BY SRINATH ITSELF     (Atappattu , Mubarak , Arvinda de Silva & Jayasuriya)                               DADA(Saurav Ganguly) with his team :)