One sport that has taken over the hearts of millions of people in India is cricket. Over the decades, the nation has seen several iconic cricketing achievements, but some moments stand above all and are cherished forever. These victories weren’t just about winning trophies, they were a step to take Indian cricket on the world map and shape a new brand of the game.
1. 1983 World Cup win
India’s maiden celebratory cricketing moment came after lifting the 1983 World Cup. On June 25 at Lord’s, the underdog Indian team, under Kapil Dev's leadership, defeated the powerful West Indies, who were two-time defending champions. Defending just 183 runs, India produced a phenomenal bowling performance to win by 43 runs. Dev’s iconic 175* against Zimbabwe earlier in the tournament is still considered one of the best knocks in One-day Cricket. This historic victory gave a new perspective to take up the sport as a career and bring glory to the nation.
With this triumph, cricket, which was until the win, an ignored section in the newspapers had the sports page filled with cricket news for a few weeks to come, which changed the cricketing landscape in the homeland.
2. 2007 T20 World Cup win
In 2007, when T20 cricket, which was still new and many teams were adapting to it, the Men in Blue stunned everyone by winning the inaugural ICC T20 World Cup in South Africa. Under a young, calm skipper, MS Dhoni, the side had fielded an inexperienced squad after a disappointing ODI World Cup earlier that year. The tournament had its share of moments of highs, from Yuvraj Singh’s six sixes against England to the bowl-out versus Pakistan. The final was another nail-biter against arch-rivals Pakistan, and Dhoni’s bet to hand the last over to Joginder Sharma paid off. Misbah-Ul-Haq’s mis-timed scoop saw Sreesanth completing the catch and handing the team a five-run win. The winning squad was given a heroic reception upon their arrival in Mumbai.
3. 2011 ODI World Cup win
Mobile Internet had just started to step in the Indian infrastructure and one thing that commonly continued to trend on the search engines was live cricket score, just to check what’s the update on Indian team’s match going on and in came the 2011 ODI World Cup at home for the Men in Blue. After 28 long years of waiting, the side finally lifted their second ODI World Cup title on April 2, 2011, at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Under MS Dhoni’s leadership, the squad had the desire to win the trophy for the nation and the legendary Sachin Tendulkar. Chasing 275 against Sri Lanka, the hosts lost Virender Sehwag and Tendulkar early. But Gautam Gambhir’s fighting 97 and an unbeaten 91 by Dhoni took the side over the line. Dhoni’s winning six off Nuwan Kulasekara is registered in every cricket fan's mind. Yuvraj Singh, battling illness throughout the tournament, was awarded the Player of the Tournament and was all over the cricket news section in the newspapers the following day.
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