5YAT: WWW

Five years ago today, perhaps the most remarkable test match in that last 20 years started. It was Kolkata: India vs. Australia. The match didn’t start well for India at all. Australia tore into a fairly weak and inexperienced bowling attack and laid a solid foundation for a great innings. After two sessions, Australia were 193/1.

I turned on my compute and checked Cricinfo early in the morning. It was the 72nd over of the match. The score was 252/5. The scoreboard read:

.W

Ponting had just fallen to Harbhajan; Waugh was on 14.

I thought, “Oh well, at least India has 5 wickets. Maybe they can hold Australia under 400.” But I was disappointed that they had once again let Australia get a good score.

I checked the scorecard. I saw Hayden had scored 97 and Langer got a half-century.

I went back to the scoreboard half expecting Gilchrist to rip the game wide open. The scoreboard read:

.WW

Gilchrist had just fallen first ball to Harbhajan.

“Wow! Harbhajan is on a hattrick.” I just stared at the screen hoping I would see another W come up.

I remember one other time I sat looking for something to happen. I was following a match on Cricinfo: New Zealand vs. South Africa. It was just one of a 6- match series of ODI’s. South Africa need 7 runs off of the last two balls and Klusener was batting. I thought, “Wouldn’t it be incredible if Klusener hit two boundaries in a row and won it for South Africa?” Needless to say, Klusener did it. He was awesome.

But a hat-trick is really rare. In fact, no Indian bowler had ever bowled a hattrick in a test match before. I just looked up at the screen wondering if it could happen. And then I saw it:

.WWW

Harbhajan had just gotten Warne for a first-ball duck!

I nearly fell out of my chair.

Later, I bought the video just to see that hattrick. It was a stunning catch by Ramesh (who was a decent opener and should have played longer).

A few overs later, Kasprowicz fell to Sourav Ganguly (he would get only five more wickets in the next five years). It seemed then that India was going to hold Australia to a gettable score.

But that was just day one.