In India we breathe cricket, we live for it, and every time the team steps on to the field it knows a lot is at stake. So, the shots are hit, the bails are sent flying and insult is NOT taken. Never.
Here are a few instances of Indian cricketers showing opponents who is the real boss.
1. When Stuart Broad had to pay the price for Andrew Flintoff’s audacious ‘I will cut your throat’ comment to Yuvraj Singh.
The maiden World T20 was memorable for this incident as much as it was for the last over of the final by Joginder Sharma. India were playing England in one of the matches leading up to the final and Flintoff thought he would get a reaction out of Yuvraj by making him angry. He did get a reaction, just not how he was expecting. Yuvraj hit 6 sixes in response, and the rest is history.
2. Another incident involving Flintoff gave cricket one of its most rebellious moments in the form of a shirtless Indian captain in the much revered Lord’s Balcony.
Flintoff took off his shirt while playing against India in Wankhede earlier. He was going to regret it, he just didn’t know it at the time. Fast forward, India wins the Natwest final of 2002 in the most dramatic fashion, and Sourav Ganguly swings his shirt in celebration.
With that one gesture, he reminded the world that boundaries are supposed to be hit, not crossed.
3. That leads us to the classic Aamir Sohail- Venkatesh Prasad face off which is like a movie you have watched a 100 times without getting bored.
You wouldn’t have scrolled down this far if you didn’t know about this incident or weren’t obsessed with it. During 1996 World Cup quarterfinal, Pakistan’s Aamir Sohail allowed emotions to get the better of him and gestured towards Venkatesh Prasad as if to say ‘go, fetch the ball’ after hitting his delivery for a 4.
Prasad didn’t react much in the moment and in retrospect, didn’t need to. He bowled out Sohail in literally the next ball and signalled him to ‘go back to the pavilion’. That must have been one heavy walk, right?
4. Virender Sehwag telling Shoaib Akhtar baap baap hota ha, beta beta hota hai, after Sachin Tendulkar proved it for him.
This one is from 2003 World Cup, when Shoaib Akhtar kept telling Sehwag to play a hook shot, presumably wanting him to make a mistake and get dismissed. When he didn’t stop, Sehwag came up with an idea, he told Akhtar, “Woh tera baap khada hai samne non-striking end pe, uss ko bol woh mar ke dikhayega“.
The confidence could be attributed to the fact that the person on the non-striker’s end was Sachin Tendulkar.
Later, the two batsmen switched sides during a Shoaib Akhtar over and Sachin hit him for a huge 6. Elated by his successful prediction, Sehwag went up to Akhtar and said, “Baap baap hota ha, beta beta hota hai“.
5. A 16-year-old Sachin Tendulkar announcing his arrival by making Abdul Qadir regret undermining him.
Being proven wrong by ‘God’ can only be so bad, it’s inevitable. But Abdul Qadir took some time to realise that
Sachin was playing quite good for his age and the Pakistani bowler thought he could break his concentration by saying, “Bachhon ko kyu maar rahe ho? Hume bhi maar ke dikhao”.
Sachin, who made the dreams of billions come true, did not disappoint Qadir. He did, in fact, hit him for 6, 0, 4, 6, 6, 6 in his next over.
6. Virat Kohli sending off Joe Root with a ‘mic drop’ as a revenge to a similar gesture by the Englishman earlier.
Cricket is a great leveler and so, you should be careful about what you say and do. Root wasn’t.
England won the ODI series against India in 2018 and he thought it would be fitting to mark the moment by dropping his bat in a gesture that indicated ‘this is all I had to say’.
He did, in fact, because Kohli would go on to complete the story. He ran out Root in the Test series that followed ODIs and gave him a send off in his own style. You do learn a lot from your opponents!
7. Harbhajan Singh calling karma by guiding India to victory after a verbal spat with Shoaib Akhtar.
We all know Harbhajan could be dangerous on his day but it seems like Shoaib Akhtar forgot. Or maybe he didn’t and wanted to use sledging as a tactic.
In any case, Harbhajan benefited from it and saw India to victory by smashing a 6 in the final over.
To give you an idea of intense things were, even MS Dhoni acknowledged that passion was running high in the after-match presentation.
It wasn’t cool today. With a match like this, especially against Pakistan, you can never be cool. Thanks to Bhajji, you can call him an all-rounder now.
8. Zaheer Khan giving perfect response to Brett Lee’s sledging by hitting him for a 6 right after a fight.
The year was 2007 and Brett Lee was feared, to say the least. By every batsman, let alone a tail-ender.
But he was wrong in thinking that he’d go and insult Zaheer, without paying for it. The Indian batsman hit him for a beautiful 6 just after their altercation, much to the delight of cricket fans in the country.
9. Sourav Ganguly teaching young Stuart Broad an important lesson in manners by putting him in place during a 2007 ODI.
Broad was quite experienced at that time. Obviously, otherwise why would you make someone like Ganguly angry when he has warned you against it?
Anyway, Broad kept poking the former Indian captain during one of his overs. So when he came back again, Dada started the over with a 6 to show why exactly he should have been more careful.
That same year, Yuvraj took a better revenge by hitting him for six 6s but we have covered that already.
10. Dhoni showing initial signs of his now-famous composure by hitting maiden century despite constant jabs from Shahid Afridi.
MS Dhoni had a lot to prove in that match because his first few outings had been disappointing. Shahid’s constant remarks didn’t help either.
But pressure and Dhoni compliment each other like nothing else. He kept doing his job, and ended up getting his first international ODI century with a smile that would go on to become a source of comfort for an entire country.