Miracles Do Happen!!!| Battle month|12

A “Miracle” is a thing that happens beyond expectations, sometimes unexpectedly and unbelievably. These can also happen without pre-plannings too. So during my lifetime, I have heard about so many miracles that have happened all around the world. From this article, I’m talking to you all about a miracle that I experienced myself. It’s called the “Melbourne Miracle”. Some of you might have already heard about this. Yes, this is regarding cricket, the sport that I love so much.

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This happened in 2010, the first ODI match of a three-match cricket series which was held at the MCG cricket grounds in Australia. The game was between Sri Lanka and Australia.

After winning the toss, the Australian team decided to bat first. However, with a tremendous effort of both bowling and fielding, the Sri Lankans somehow managed to restrict the Aussies for just only 239 runs on the board. So, almost all Sri Lankan cricket fans including me felt very happy, because the target seemed to be a gettable target for the Sri Lankan batsmen. So, with winning hopes, I also started to continue watching the match. But unfortunately, all of a sudden, that mood started to change dramatically as the Sri Lankan wickets were starting to collapse one by one. At a point, the score was 3-73 with Legendary batsmen Kumara Sangakkara remaining in the wicket.

Thereafter about 10-20minutes later, the scorecard appeared as 8-107, making all the Sri Lankan fans’ hopes being faded away. At this point, young Anjelo Mathews and Lasith Malinga were at the wicket.
When every Sri Lankan’s hopes were fading away with great sorrow, the Aussies were over the moon, full of excitement and joy and they also behaved as if they had already won the match.
At that time Sri Lankans needed 136 runs to win 25 overs. But Angelo Mathews and Lasith Malinga did not care about the situation and the scoreboard. They played freely without getting any kind of pressure. We as fans felt that these two Sri Lankans are enjoying themselves in the middle, neither having any panicking. However, no one thought that these two had a plan to win this match.

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Suddenly Aussies were threatened, as they felt that something strange was going to happen. They started to attack with the field and their main bowlers. But the two Sri Lankan Batsmen didn’t look into that and they played all over the park. Lasith Malinga scored his maiden half-century but failed short to score the winning run as he got run out when the scores are level. Actually, it was a high tense moment, still can’t believe how I managed my mind at that time. Not only me, I think all the Sri Lankans must have definitely felt like that. But that didn’t last for much longer, because the legendary bowler Muttiah Muralitharan came from nowhere and he finally hit the winning runs by getting all the Srilankan’s up to their feet. Australians were threatened with the things that happened around them. 8-107 to the glory was indeed a miracle.

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At the post-match presentation the young Sri Lankan batsmen Angelo Mathews was named as the man of the match for his unbeatable 77 runs and the 132 runs partnership for the 9th wicket which is still a world record.

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