The British ruled over us for more than 200 years. The cricket matches with England are, therefore, more than just cricket matches. It is us, an erstwhile colonial nation, besting our erstwhile rulers in a game they consider themselves the inventors of. Therefore, it was imperative that both sides consider the other a fierce opponent, one they must absolutely defeat, every time they take on each other.
This has given us some brilliant and famous encounters, like the 1983 Semi-Final victory of Kapil Dev, Graham Gooch sweeping and Mike Gatting reverse sweeping India out of the 1987 World Cup, Sourav Ganguly going shirtless at the Lords, and Yuvraj Singh hammering Stuart Broad for 6 sixes off 6 consecutive deliveries.
Needless to say, the present generation and the teams to come will face stiff competition from each other, handing fans a match-up to eagerly look forward to.
The Australians are a team accustomed to bossing around in the field. In plain terms, they are what we call bullies. After the great West Indian era spearheaded by Clive Lloyd, no team came close to achieving complete prowess over the game as the Australian teams of the 90s and early 2000s. First Steve Waugh, and then Ricky Ponting led their teams in an invincible run, winning three World cups on a trot.
There was one aberration though. Whether it was Tendulkar’s spectacular Sharjah desert storm, or Dravid and Laxman’s defiant Kolkata heroics, or a spinning Harbhajan hat-trick in the same match.
Naturally, it did not augur well with them when an upstart team started challenging their supremacy. The added fact that they stopped their test victory juggernaut in its stead, twice, did not help matters. And hence, in the early 2000s, a new rivalry was born.
Pakistan is… well, Pakistan. India has a thousand reasons (and one) to call them their arch-rivals, given the history between them, both on and off the field. Countless moments, from Javed Miandad’s last-ball six off Chetan Sharma in Sharjah to Virender Sehwag’s 309 in Multan, to the final of the inaugural T20 World Cup, 2017 Champions Trophy, and all the matches in World Cup and Champions Trophy. Literally, every match the two teams play is high on emotions and is an absolute blockbuster.
But then, these are the cricketing rivalries that already exist.
9 June 2019: Two strong teams met each other. The match is a World Cup semi-final naturally resulted in one of them being ousted from the tournament.
23 June 2021: The same teams collided in the Finals of the inaugural World Test Championship. They had both reached there after 2 years of immense hard work. Once again, one of them had to stare into the face of defeat.
31 October 2021: Same teams. The third format of cricket. Similar equations (a virtual qualifier of sorts). Same result. One of them outplayed the other.
7 November 2021: One of the teams was facing a different team. The fate of the other team rested in their hands. They kept their cool, played better cricket, and ended up winning comfortably in the end. This result once again meant the other team being ousted from the tournament.
The victor, in all those games, was New Zealand. The ultimate good guys of the game. The ones with smiling faces. The ones who carry the unfortunate burden of not being able to win a single World Cup so far. The guys you do not want to hate.
But these couple of years, the tables have turned. Indians are a passionate people, and nothing gets this nation as riled up as cricket. And who does not love a good old revenge angle in the tale?
Therefore, Indian cricket lovers and the generations to come can add this brilliant team and its smiling captain to the list of their nemeses, and expect hot-blooded encounters whenever these two teams meet.
For on this day, a rivalry was born.
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