Implausible – That's what I felt when Mark Boucher lofted a full ball from Brett Lee over mid on for a boundary. It’s hardly half an hour since I saw the best one-day match of my life.
ODI Match number 2349 - South Africa v/s Australia at Wanderers. Australia score 434 in 50 overs to become the first team in the history of the game to surmount the 400 run barrier. As obvious as it was, the rest of the game was supposed to be merely academic. But then, destiny had unusual things in mind – the probability of something happening 1 out of 100000 came about today. A man named Herschelle Gibbs took the game to a new echelon – with an amazing 175 off 111 balls! Making sure that the hard work was not for a losing cause, was an indomitable being named Mark Boucher who was exiled from the team hardly 4 months back. No more frozen frames – Just get a DVD of the match and watch it.
For once, I am so happy for switching off the bike and skipping the plan of going to office on a Sunday evening, when I heard Tony Greig shout "What a six! What a six!" after Gibbs hit that six over extra cover. Myself, Kich and PP were holding our hearts in the hands during the match, and sure would have been all the people who were watching this spectacle. I don’t think we have been so dumbfound by any victory by India. It was entertainment of the utmost class. Hats Off to Gibbs, Boucher, Smith and Van Der Wath (in that order)!! Such a warm, sweet revenge for the 99 World Cup semifinal.
