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There are certain days that are etched in your memory forever. No matter how many years – or rather decades – pass by you still remember them clearly. One such day in my life was to witness one of India’s greatest batsmen achieving a kind of an unlikely milestone.
If someone were to tell you that they saw Sunil Gavaskar score a 100, you are most likely to think two things: a) you’re old and b) what’s the big deal, after all he scored 34 centuries. Wrong on both counts as I am not that old and Gavaskar scored 34 centuries in Test matches but scored a solitary hundred in the shorter format of the game. I was there to watch him score that historic 100.
It was 1987 and as a young boy living in Nagpur I went to see India play New Zealand in a World Cup encounter. It wasn’t my first time in a cricket stadium but it was the first one-day international (ODI) that I was seeing beyond the realms of the horrendous Doordarshan telecast on my black and white television.
I was brimming with excitement as I entered the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) stadium that happened to be right next to my school. Even though New Zealand weren’t considered a glamorous enough opponent – something that remains remarkably true after so many years – it was a momentous day. India was the defending champions and there was a considerable amount of excitement in the ground.
Cricket, back then was an extremely pure game untouched by the moneymen and most people inside the stadium were there for the love of the sport. Fans, including me, just carried a pair of binoculars, which was happily passed around from time to time. We were there because we wanted to watch the match, unlike modern day crowd who go to be seen at important events or put updates on social networking websites, or worse click “selfies”. Sitting on concrete slabs in the heat wasn’t really pleasant but it hardly mattered as watching a live match inside a stadium was a big deal.
New Zealand came into and bat and before Gavaskar could score his maiden ODI century, Chetan Sharma had plans of creating history as well. Sharma was Indian public’s favourite punching bag ever since he let Javed Miandad score a last-ball six off his bowling. People don’t forget such acts and Sharma was roundly booed as he stood on the boundary line. But little did the crowd know that apart from that six, Sharma would go down as the first man to claim a hat-trick in a World Cup. Since then six other hat-tricks have been achieved but Sharma was the first when he got Ken Rutherford, Ian Smith and Evan Chatfield as his victims. It was a unique hat-trick as all three were clean bowled and Sharma hit the off, middle and leg stumps.
But it was going to be Gavaskar’s day after all. Considering that he is one of India’s finest batsmen ever, Gavaskar strangely never had people excited when he was on the pitch. He wasn’t a big hitter or scored runs quickly – attributes, which made batsmen exciting in ODIs – so when he came into bat with KrishnamachariSrikanth, it was his partner who got the maximum cheers. Though on this it was Gavaskar who literally stole the thunder with an uncharacteristic innings. Chasing a total of 221, Gavaskar was like a different player that day. In one over Gavaskar hit two straight sixes off Chatfield and one had to check twice whether it was he or Srikanth doing the hitting. The binoculars did come in handy during such moments. A delirious fan even ran onto the pitch to shake hands with Gavaskar but ended up doing falling at his feet in awe! There was a standing ovation for the fan when security personnel chased him off the pitch.
He scored a memorable 103 not out off 88 balls and India chased down the total with 17-odd overs to spare. Gavaskar was already in the twilight of his career during the 1987 World Cup. It came as no surprise when retired from limited overs cricket after India lost in the semi finals to England. It was kind of strange for a man who was an accomplished stroke player and scored 100s for fun in Test matches to get only one 100 in 103 ODIs. Fortunately, I was there to see one of India’s greatest ever cricketers achieve an important landmark.
