Ever celebrated a win only to be told the job was not yet done? Well, Team India got a taste of that in Sourav Ganguly’s first match as full-time skipper.
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March 9, 2000 saw India take on South Africa in Kochi. The home side made a great effort of chasing down a target of 302, but not before some drama was involved.
For a young cricket fan like me (just fresh into his teen years back then), the incident seemed to take the sting out of the celebrations. Celebrate the same victory twice? It felt weird.
With 4 needed from 4 balls, Anil Kumble top-edged Shaun Pollock over the keeper’s head towards the boundary.
Jacques Kallis dived but it appeared that the ball had touched the rope. This lead to celebrations in the Indian camp and the batsmen ran off to join their mates.
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As the visitors left the field the umpires discovered that the ball had been stopped and the batsmen had run 3. So 1 was needed from 3 balls. In a move that shocked world cricket, they players were brought back and Robin Singh completed the job and this time finally India could celebrate without any question.
Yours truly was wondering how such a thing took place. We won once, but had to win again! A rare sight in international cricket.
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Cricket is certainly a funny old game and while I was laughing inside, I wonder if I would have felt the same way if the result had been different. Who knows? 23 years later I am older and wiser, back then things were less complicated.