An off day to remember!

While June 25 1983 and April 2 2011 are matchless when it comes to redlettered days in Indian ODI cricket March 23 2003 shouldnrsquot pale into insignificance too much albeit India ending up on the losing side as against the first two mentioned finalsItrsquos 20 years today since India figured in their second World Cup final since that glorious one at Lordrsquos in 1983 There is no instrument to measure determination but that side led by Sourav Ganguly had plenty of it They were out to prove their critics wrong especially the ones who wrote them off after a ninewicket loss to Australia at Centurion in their second match of the tournament which came after a scratchy win over the Netherlands at PaarlThe team faced some serious criticism and public ire which resulted in damage to Mohammed Kaifrsquos home in AllahabadSachin Tendulkar had to make a statement before the third game against Zimbabwe at Harare to help calm things down at home Ganguly didnrsquot shy away from the hard talk after the loss to Australia ldquoWe have had team talks but what we have to do now is to go back to our rooms and think as to how we can improve our cricketrdquo he saidAlso Read Hello long time no lsquoCrsquoIndia didnrsquot lose a game in the tournament after that defeat till the final which Australia won by 125 runsVictories over Zimbabwe Namibia England Pakistan Kenya Sri Lanka and New Zealand were meritoriousThe game I thought the Indians would find hard was against New Zealand at Centurion India had lost an ODI series 25 in New Zealand before landing in South Africa but at the World Cup the Kiwis were beaten by seven wicketsKenya were Indiarsquos opponents in the semifinals at Durban and I remember exBCCI chief Raj Singh Dungarpur jokingly pleading with Kenya coach Sandeep Patil at the teamsrsquo hotel lobby in Durban not to upset Indiarsquos World CupSkipper Ganguly helped himself to his third century of the tournament and India had an easy passage to the grand final through a 91run win over the KenyansAmidst the opinions floating around about what would happen in the final a fan came up with an interesting prediction while giving me a lift from Johannesburg airportHe said that it was the turn of a lefthanded batsmancaptain to lift the cup He reminded me that southpaw Clive Lloyd claimed the first two World Cups followed by righthanded Kapil Dev lifting it in 1983The 1987 silverware went to lefthanded Allan Border and the next one to righthander Imran Khan In 1996 lefthanded Arjuna Ranatunga lifted the trophy and righthanded Steve Waugh claimed the ultimate honours in 1999 So it would be Ganguly the lefthander this timeMeanwhile Ganguly spoke about how the team felt before the final ldquoIt is better to be relaxed Wersquove done the things we had to do right through this tournament be it in the nets fielding volleyball everythingrdquoHe won the toss at Johannesburg and put Australia in hoping his pacemen would put the overcast conditions to good use But as Wisden of 2003 put it ldquoAustralia saved their most ruthless clinical and complete performance for the biggest stage of allrdquoSkipper Ricky Ponting at onedrop played an innings for the oneday Gods after openers Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist put on 105 The duo made the first over of the game memorable for them by clubbing Zaheer for 15 runs Ponting led the way in terms of quantum of runs 140 not out and displayed dominance in its truest sense but Damien Martyn 88 not out was equally indestructible If his skipper was in prime physical condition Martyn was not playing with a broken fingerAustraliarsquos 3592 both wickets claimed by Harbhajan Singh was the highest score in a World Cup final Indiarsquos dream of achieving another World Cup appeared destroyed even before Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag walked out to batGlenn McGrath just like he had done in the 1999 World Cup game against India sent Tendulkar back early The Indian supporters went into mute mode In the press box our hearts sunk Sehwag topscored with 82 and the next best was Dravidrsquos 47 Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh scored 24 each A 125run loss what a massive off day Many believed that it would have been a different story had India batted firstPonting reckoned Indiarsquos body language wasnrsquot impressive in the final but credited them for playing some ldquosensational cricketrdquo in the tournamentTeam India would have been devastated not merely by the loss but the extent of damage Australia inflicted on them I saw coach John Wright walking at the Sandton Sun hotel that evening and I just couldnrsquot muster up enough courage to go near himIt was the same man who fumed after the team lost one of their warmup matches before the first game against the Netherlands ldquoYou canrsquot publicly defend this sort of a performance This is unacceptablerdquo he had told me But Wright and the team could feel proud of what they had done after that loss to KwaZuluNatal on February 6A month after the World Cup final I asked Tendulkar about the mood in the camp post the final loss to Australia and if there were tears ldquoYes It was quite badrdquo he said adding ldquoBut we got together and congratulated each other lsquoWell triedrsquo we told each other After all it was a great turnaround after that second game We felt we had given a 100 per cent every ball Nobody felt in the end that they did not try hard enoughrdquoAnd thatrsquos why March 23 2003 should be a date to remembermiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stanceHe tweets ClaytonMurzello Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper