17th March 1996, a day to remember, 21 years ago it was the best day of Sri Lankan Cricket. Yes, the day we won a World cup for the First time. Arajuna’s gutsy decision to chase flabbergasted everyone, amazed all the Cricket pundits and the experts, chasing in a world Cup, especially in a world Cup Final is indeed an added pressure and no one ever has won, but this what Sri Lanka has been doing all throughout the Tournament, Chasing totals successfully even with immense pressure, that was their forte and they went in to the Finals with their Gut feeling.
This was also the first Day/ night match in Pakistan Soil. Australia made 241 for 7 in their 50 overs Thanks to 74 by their skipper Mark Taylor. Ara was the star with the bowl bagging 3 for 42. The two openers who made a revolution in World cricket few months back came into bat but both were back in the hut when the scoreboard read 23 and in came mad max, and the rest is history, the rest is truly tough to be converted into words, he added 125 with Gura for the 3rd Wicket and an unbeaten 97 for the 4th with skipper Ranthunga.
Mad Max, Aravinda brought up his 2nd century to go with his 2 half centuries, he cut the ball, pulled and drew his way to a well-made 107* runs from 124 balls. Big Pradeep gave him a good support with 65 off 99 balls and his shots against Warne still runs in my mind like today. He flat-batted Warne for four to long-on and for six over long-off from consecutive balls. Captain Arajuna finished the game with a delicate late cut and ended at 47* off 37 balls. Sri Lankans danced in the isles when they finished the game so easily in 46.2 overs with only 3 wickets down. Ara’s 100 in the Final of a World Cup while chasing was the first and the only century while chasing and he was named the Man of the Match. It was the third hundred in a World Cup final (after Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards), It was the first time in six attempts that a side batting second had won the World Cup final.
Mad max was the highest runs scorer for Sri Lanka in the World cup and the third in the list with 448 runs in 6 matches and had a better average of 89.60 than the first two. Sanath the man who did and added so much metamorphosis to the game in 1995 and 1996 was the man of the series for his 221 runs and 7 wickets in the World Cup.
One of the best moments of the finals was Ravindra Pushpakumara, who was the 12th man of the finals forgetting the message told to him by his team mates and the coach to pass on to Aravinda and Gura. Lot of People told so much to him and he was under immense pressure, he went to the Middle and forgot everything that was said to him and went and told ‘Well played aiyya, keep going” and ran back, and went back to the dressing room and told everyone that he told the messages he was asked to pass on. He was the Messenger who couldn’t deliver a single message.
A kid of just 2 years not knowing anything about Cricket watched the full match and didn’t fell asleep or cried. 8 hours in front of the TV with parents and the only player I knew and the only name I told when I was 2 was Chaminda Bass, yes not vass I said bass. And now Cricket has become Passion, My life.
