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Most Painful Performances in Cricket Hall of Fame Part III: India 120/8 and Sri Lanka 120/8

Two teams punch their way into the Most Painful Performances in Cricket Hall of Fame with their sheer misjudgment and lack of direction. Our dual inductees into the Hall of Fame share many similarities and their rivalry goes a long way back. These teams are guilty of burdening us (the fans) with two embarrassing sporting fails on the World Cup Stage. Without any further ado lets talk about the back story which intertwines these Hall of Fame inductions.

The year was 1996, school was just about to finish when news arrived that Sri Lanka were 1/2 (read that as two wickets for one run) in the all important World Cup Semi-Final against India. That news was like nectar to my ears, I immediately rushed home, only to find that Aravinda de Silva had steadied the ship with a magical innings. Aravinda's fearless stroke play along with Roshan Mahanama's resilience set India a testing but perfectly attainable target of 252 runs.


Flashback


India lost Sidhu's wicket quite early before Sachin Tendulkar and Sanjay Manjrekar joined hands to lay the foundation for a solid chase. Tendulkar in particular was in great form and for a while it seemed as though, it was indeed going to be his day. Then he was Out! to a brilliant piece of stumping.   As Sachin walked back to the pavilion I stepped out for some fresh air (India's chases, once Sachin was out were often doomed in those days so I decided to ease my tensions by taking a break from watching the match). On my way back I noticed that the streets were still deserted which meant that India was actually doing well in the chase (Little did I know what was going on).

The turning point: Tendulkar's stumping
By the time I switched on the TV, all hell had broken loose. Srinath (yeah our pinch hitting answer to Jayasuriya) ran himself out just then to peg us back to 110/5 (I had to literally rub my eyes to find out what was happening). It only got worse from there when three more wickets fell for 10 runs. India were tottering at 120/8 when the crowd intervened to stall what was beginning to look like a mercy killing. The match was awarded to Sri Lanka by default (the only time that happened in a World Cup) and a school boy's dream to see his country win the world cup was crushed for the foreseeable future. For giving me a painful evening which consisted of poor judgement and even worse batting I hereby induct 1996 World Cups' Indian Team into the Most Painful Performances in Cricket Hall of Fame.

Flash Forward


Fast forward 19 years, yours truly was rushing through his morning routine when he switched on the TV to check the scores for the 2015 World Cup quarter-final match between South Africa and Sri Lanka. Believe it or not I once again picked up the proceedings at the fall of the fifth wicket with Sri Lanka precariously placed at 114/5. In the blink of an eye they lost three more wickets to slide to 120/8. Yes that very score once again in the knockout game of a world cup after both the losing teams won the toss and elected to field/bat respectively. For giving us a painfully one sided quarter final the 2015 World Cups' Sri Lankan Team has also been ushered into the Most Painful Performances in Cricket Hall of Fame.

Hold on! The set of similarities between the two innings and the two teams don't just stop there:
  1. Indian reached 120/8 in 34.1 overs whereas Sri Lanka reached 120/8 in 35.3 overs.
  2. Both Vinod Kambli and Kumar Sangakkara, the set batsmen batting at the other end when the 8th wicket fell were left handed.
  3. Kambli's strike rate when the 8th wicket fell was 34.48 (10 crawls (runs) of 29 canon balls) whereas Sangakkara's strike rate at the same time was 38.63 (34 stupefying runs of 88 perfect deliveries). Did the pedestrian strike rate of both these batsmen cause the other batsmen to pull the self-destruction switch? Nah it was just good bowling feeding off some aimless batting.
  4. These respective matches would also be the last time Kambli and Sangakkara would play in a world cup.
  5. After Sangakkara's wicket fell the quarter-final was halted for a few minutes by rain whereas that fateful semi-final was also halted (but in this case completely) by the crowd who were well and truly appalled by the ineptness of the chase.
  6. There were three ducks (Dilshan, Thisara Perera and Kaushal) in the Sri Lankan innings whereas the Indian innings also had three ducks (Azhar, Jadeja and Ashish Kapoor) in it before the play was halted.
  7. JP Duminy a batting all-rounder took three wickets to break the back of the Sri Lankan innings whereas another batting all-rounder Jayasuriya did the same for Sri Lanka.
  8. The fourth wicket in the Sri Lankan innings (Thirimanne) was caught and bowled by Imran Tahir whereas Kumar Dharmasena (who incidentally is officiating as an umpire in this world cup) caught and bowled Mohammad Azharuddin who was (No Prizes for guessing) the 4th wicket to fall for India. And yes both Kumar Dharmasena and Imran Tahir are spinners.
  9. Then Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin's first and last name initials (MA) are the exact reverse of the present Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews' initials (AM).
Apart from all of these similarities Sri Lanka's quarter-final defeat might have also answered the age old question which has troubled some hardcore cricketing fans in India for the past two decades.

 "Could Vinod Kambli have made a match of it, provided the semi-final was allowed to continue?"

Well Vinod Kambli was no Sangakkara but Kambli at one point of time was regarded higher than even Tendulkar. Even though his technique routinely unraveled against pace, Kambli often came good against spinners (ask Shane Warne). So could Kambli have dispatched the Sri Lankan bowlers to all the corners of the ground and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat?

 And the answer is (let the drum roll begin) 
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An emphatic 'No' (with all due respect to Vinod Kambli and his claims ever since).
As Sangakkara showed us (or rather proved to us) Kambli too would have perished while trying to cut loose. Even if Kambli survived the Sri Lankan spinsters (I mean spinners) would have wrapped up the rest of the Indian tail in no time. So if there is someone out there who even after 20 something years believes that India could have won that night, here is some solid Sri Lankan proof which just can't be ignored.
Kumar Sangakarra 2015 World Cup


Sanga and Kambli same result, similar expression (Courtesy: Zimbio. com)

So that comparison between India and Sri Lanka's performance leaves us with two very important questions for this world cup:

1)  Will South Africa win this world cup just like Sri Lanka did in 1996? (I don't know, In fact no one knows but we will find out in a weeks time)

2) Will South Africa also plummet to 120/8 in the 2035 world cup? (Well we got to wait 20 years for that, just as we waited 19 years for this truly painful performance) If they do they will be inducted into the most painful performances in cricket hall of fame and rest assured you will hear about that induction right here on Life Etc Etc.


Until Next Time,
Yours Analytically,
JJ


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