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Thats what i said after the Asutralian innings and i was proved wrong in a matter of hours.

BTW, when the match just ended the commentator called it, “One of the great one day matches, if not the greatest.” don remember who it was.

For me Yuvraj and Kaif beating Englad in the Nat West will still be greater than this one. But this match was amazing, it blew me away.

What would be the reaction of Tony Greig, Chappells et al? How many of you are willing to bet that it would be
“Hint, hint. Bookies were yesterday caught throwing long odds on a high scoring match. Hint, hint, Afridi just bought an expensive watch.”
rather than
“What a great match?”

You are right: “Greatest” is purely subjective, and has no place in a serious match report. Having said that, allow me to tell you why this match was great for me.

I am an Indian South African, born and brought up here. On the day of this match, I was bored and stuck at home because my car was being repaired. I didn’t even know there was a match on. After getting tired of reading, I decided to see what was on TV. Hey, cricket! Australia on something like 280/2. “Ho Hum”. Switch off and find something more interesting to do. Cut to a long time later. I see my sisters watching the same match on TV. “Hey, what’s happening?” “What? 80-something remaining off 50-something balls?” And I had to watch the rest, regardless of the score.

When the match ended, and SA won, I cheered like everyone else. Why? SA is not my favourite team. I don’t particularly like many of the players in the current side (though I do respect them). Why celebrate?

There are no individual reasons, but a combination of many things. Relative unknown JJ van der Wath (from my home town!) whacking 35 runs off 20 balls. Wickets falling..6..7..8..9. Somebody actually managing to make runs off Nathan Bracken. Makhaya Ntini making a single to get Mark Boucher back on strike, when everyone was waiting for him to mess up. And finally Mark Boucher hitting the four that meant the pompous Australians were actually beaten!

Yes, the thrill of chasing a score was definitely there. Especially when South Africa are generally considered to be chokers. But I guess the main thing was seeing the Australian team having to eat humble pie. Yes, I know, I’m happier seeing Australia get beaten than seeing good cricket (batting or bowling), but their high-and-mighty attitude is like English football commentary – really irritating.

Suyog

Keep up the gud work Arnab da !

I also wanted to nod in approval of Anonymous’s choice of the Perth one-dayer between India and West Indies. As opposed to the slugfests that blur into each other, I vividly recollect that particular game. A pace quartet of Kapil, Prabhakar, Srinath, Banerjee (the greatest Indian pace attack ever had to defend 136. Azharuddin decided to go all out and bowled four major bowlers out. After 40 overs, the score was 121/9. They bowled superbly, but failed to get the final wicket. Tendulkar had to bowl the 41st over (even today I have nightmares about Shastri coming to bowl the 42nd over). He conceded five runs, but claimed the wicket of Cummins in his last delivery to secure a tie. An inconsequential group league match, but what a game it was.

http://tinyurl.com/qdt2z

I also recall fantastic one-day matches between England, Australia and West Indies in Benson and Hedges triangular tournaments in Australia in mid-late eighties and early nineties. Those were the that days of black-and-white DeeDee and nothing else. In Calcutta, we had the privilege of watching the highlights of those matches on Bangladesh television in the evening. I have sacrificed many an afternoon’s soccer practice to finish homework and watch those matches later in the evening. And it was not just Bill Lawry and Ritchie Benaud’s charming and knowledgeable voices, the quality of cricket was awesome. More often than not the bowlers had the upperhand. I cherish and miss that genre.