By Rajendra Galagali
It's cricket which has always been the power booster ever since independence of India. It might be the 1983 world cup or the inaugural T-20 world cup of 2007 or the ultimate supremacy of heroics of 2011 world cup from the forever captain of Indian cricket team MSD. It's just been that vigorous adrenaline rush that takes something extra from the heart of every Indian. The nation stops every single time when there is the match going on air. They forget their problems, sorrows, tensions and everything and just enjoy being with the team just to cheer up for them.
We all know what it takes to be an Indian cricket fan. We celebrate, we cry, we pray, we will do everything to make our team to be at the winning side but when it comes to India v/s Pakistan there is something extra pinch of salt which makes it more emotional irrespective of the stage on which the match is being played on. It might be the knockouts or a simple practice match, it always takes the heart out of your mouth.
Just the noise from both the sides makes it scarier and no doubt it is the biggest rivalry amongst any sport being played on earth. It's just impeccable passion for the sport which both the countries possess.
It might be the 1992 world cup where Kapil Dev's all-round performance and Sachin's batting snatched the game away from Pakistan and who can even forget that tussle between Venkatesh Prasad and Pakistan veteran batsman Amir Sohail in 1996 where the last laugh was ours when Prasad just cleaned Amir's stumps. Just the fiery celebration from Prasad which gave me goosebumps even while writing and the 2007 Bowl-out when the match was a tie and for the first time in the history of game of cricket. There was a match being decided through bowl-out where MSD just came and gave the bowl to the non-bowlers to hit the stumps. On the other hand, there were the likes of Umar Gul, Shahid Afridi and Abdul Razak which were just the golden standard of bowling that time. It was captain cool's idea which just worked out and India won by 3-0 in that competition. Not just this, in the final of same tournament it was again our captain's calm and composed mind which took us to the first ever T20 World Cup victory.
In 2010, it had just been the Virat Kohli show. But in the 2011 World Cup semi-final it was Sachin Tendulkar whose 80 runs took India into the finals. After that it has been Virat...Virat, it might be his fifty in 2016 T20 WC where he just dedicated this knock to his idol on his birthday or it might be the fighting knock in losing cause 2021 but yesterday when the time came to take revenge on our evergreen rivals our team just did something unimaginable and inhuman which just made us scream out loud and be at the top of the sky.
These are the moments which make this sport and rivalry special across the globe.
By Rajendra Galagali
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