A win Forged with Fire, Sealed with a Kiss! | 5% sl-charity

“that’s it to the boundary for four. What a victory for the Sri Lankans, a fantastic effort by them. The players are charging out to the ground, little Muralidaran has arrived, what a year he’s been having….”

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These were the words came from a legendary commentator, most beloved by the Sri Lankans, at the most grandest day of Sri Lankas sporting history, happened exactly 25 years ago. No matter how many years have gone by it still give me goosebumps even though I was not lucky enough to watch it live. It was world cup of 1996, the world cup for the Sri Lankans.

As the ESPN crickinfo says

in terms of picture-perfect finishes on the biggest stage, it’s hard to beat MS Dhoni’s six to win the world cup 2011 but as far as moments of pure catharsis is concerned, it’s hard to look beyond Ranatunnga’s cheeky nudge through third man to put Sri Lanka on top of the cricketing world.

So why is that a catharsis? The story must unfold from a year ago in 1995.

The Sri Lankan team visited Australia as their last tour before the world cup in 1995/96 just two months before the world cup. The tour was one sided, Australians were very dominant, and Sri Lanka were out played. But there were lot more that the score cards will not tell.

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They were accused of a ball tampering incident in the 1 st test in the series at Perth but ICC couldn’t have enough evidence to prove it. To add more drama, on the second day of second test, a young off spinner called Muttaiya Muralidaran came to the scene, little did anyone know that he was going to be the greatest spinner ever to play the game and had been called for chucking for 7 times in 3 overs by umpire Darrel Hair from the bowlers end which was rather unusual. The Australian media had their sayings, a big blow for the youngster mentally.

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Put asides the chucking controversy, at the end of the series there were rumors that Australia was unlikely to travel Sri Lanka for the opening match of the world cup tournament. And the whispers came true following a bomb attack in Colombo, Australia awarded the match and 2 points were added to Sri Lanka.

The moment they knew Australia is not gonna come, captain Ranathunga made a bold statement.” Bring on Australia for the final! “

His words were not merely a bravado, nor words of anger. He had a plan and good resources to execute that plan. Openers like fire, Calm and experienced middle order and a spin heavy attack to suit sub-continental pitches and not to forget the very supporting crowd of Pakistan.

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After winning the toss captain Ranatunga chose to bowl first for the amazement of everyone as in previous 5 world cups, teams batting first have always won. The decision seemed to backfired as the Australia cruised to 137 of the loss of one wicket. But Sri Lanka’s veteran batsman, Aravinda de Silva stepped up to the plate, this time with the ball in hand.
He picked well set Mark Taylor and Ricky Ponting and later Ian Healy as well as taken two catches in the field. The atmosphere is getting him ready for the biggest night of his life, biggest night of entire Sri Lanka’s sporting history.

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Just like in the semifinals, the opening duo could not give the start they wanted but Gurusinha- the unsung hero of the side steadied the ship while the master craftsman Aravinda de Silva played the innings of his life, unbeaten 107 and Ranatunga having the finishing touches of what would have been a fairy tale story.

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The most impressive thing about the victory was that Sri Lanka were clearly underdogs for the tournament, winning the world cup after just 15 years gaining the test status, and having a lot of troublesome incidents just before the tournament. But at the time Sri Lanka processed the most experience batting line up of all the teams and including the class of Jayasuriya, Ranatunga and Aravinda.

Aravinda’s performance is still the best performance by a player in a final; 107 not out, 3 wickets and 2 catches. He is still regarded as Sri Lanka’s best batsman ever produced while the closest contender, Kumar Sangakkara also has no hesitations of it.

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The win was the turning point of the country’s sports as more and more youngsters got involved in sports, cricket became not just a game and huge development in infrastructures, a booster for unity among various nationalities and sweetest memory to have for a lifetime.

So that is why this win is forged in fire and sealed with a kiss!

-Ceylonese Eye-

source- https://www.espncricinfo.com/