10YAT: My First ODI

Ten years ago today I saw my first ODI. It was an excellent introduction to the world of cricket.

Actually, I had seen parts of a test match on television in India when my wife and I visited in 1995. It was, in fact, the famous Sri Lanka vs. Australia test match in which Muralitharan was no-balled. But I didn’t understand any of that. I just noticed that they played all day long and only a handful of wickets fell. It seemed a dreadfully dull sport. I couldn’t see the point of watching the same game go on for 5 days – especially if there was a good chance that even after so much time there would be no winner.

We came back to Minnesota and I forgot about cricket. But then the World Cup started –and that year it was being played in India! My wife was sorry that she would miss all the games. She read a little about them.

We went to the Indian store on the evening of the 8th of March. There were two Indian stores in Minneapolis and they were located 50 yards away from each other. This seemed to be actual example of Hotelling’s Theorem. We went to the store closer to our house (by 50 yards).

Inside, they were advertising the India-Pakistan quarterfinal. My wife exclaimed, “Oh, I wish I could have been in India to watch this.” The grocer said that they were selling tickets to watch the match at a local motel. When we left the store, my wife said, “I wish I could have seen that match. India-Pakistan matches are always so exciting.” I asked her, “Do you want to see it?” I expected my ever-practical wife to say that we needed to go home, study, sleep, etc. But she surprised me. For one time in her life she was truly spontaneous. She looked at me and said, “Yes I would.” So I said, “Let’s go back and get those tickets – you will remember this match for all of your life!”

We went straight to the motel as I recall. If we bought any frozen dinners, we just kept them in the car. It was freezing cold in Minneapolis at that time.

The motel was really not-so-nice. The room we had was flooded with toilet water because the toilet had backed up. My wife perched on the bed as if it were an island surrounded by sharks. We shared this with some other people who came to see cricket.

There was an English gentleman there to see the Sri Lanka-England match. He was disappointed, of course. I saw a bit of Sanath Jayasuriya’s innings and was enthralled. This seemed infinitely more exciting than the test match I had seen a few months earlier! Six after Six flew out of the stadium. It was a glorious innings (although a bit brief).

Then the big match started. Tendulkar opened with Sidhu. My wife was excited about seeing this Tendulkar fellow play. He had been with India for many years, but my wife hadn’t been following cricket and would only occasionally hear about it from her father. She heard a lot about Tendulkar.

Tendulkar started cautiously and began building a partnership with Sidhu. Just when it looked like India might start accelerating, Tendulkar fell. But Sidhu kept the pace going. India lost some more wickets. They were scoring at a little less than 5 per over. My wife told me that the last 10 overs were called the “slog overs” because the batsmen were always more aggressive then. At the time, I could not understand why they waited until the last 10 overs to start “slogging”.

Then Ajay Jadeja came in. This was his great cameo. He scored 45 from just 25 balls including 22 off one Waqar Younis over. The Indian supporters began getting really excited. They scored 96 runs off of the last 10 overs.

Then we had to wait. Pakistan had a target of 288 – a tough ask. But first there would be the interval. We got up and walked around. My wife felt sure that Pakistan could not chase down 288 but she was still nervous about it. It was really early in the morning and we hadn’t slept. We got some snacks to eat and something to drink – we were getting hungry.

Then Pakistan started – with a bang! Sohail and Anwar (always Anwar!) were leading the charge. They put on 84 in just 10 overs but after Srinath got Anwar, Pakistan began losing its way. Wicket after wicket fell and the asking rate started to climb. My wife and I joined another room that had a bigger crowd of Indian supporters. They cheered loudly at the fall of each wicket. Then there was a partnership between Salim Malik (the match-fixer) and Javed Miandad (the destroyer of India in years past). When Malik fell, that people could sense victory was near. The run rate simply rose over the Pakistanis’ heads. And a huge collapse saw 4 wickets fall for just 7 runs as panic took over. It was glorious!

India won!

My wife was thrilled. And I was thrilled to share a special moment with my wife. My wife exclaimed, “And best of all – we beat Pakistan!” She doesn’t like Pakistan too much.

I drove home with my wife. We were both exhausted and exhilarated at the same time.

I have been hooked on cricket ever since.

My wife has never seen another game.