With the 2019 edition of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup set to begin in May, we look back at the most memorable moments from the tournament’s four-decade-long history. You can read the entire series here.
Moment No 23
Loosener: In cricketing terms, its a slightly wayward delivery at the start of the bowler’s spell.
For those who have followed the sport over decades, this word probably came to everyone’s mind irrespective of the bowler running in to bowl the first ball of the innings or a match as even the batsmen looked for a slightly easier delivery to start the proceedings.
But one Sri Lankan changed all that on Valentines Day, 16 years ago when his very first over decided the course of the World Cup league encounter against Bangladesh. That it was the very first over of the match meant that Chaminda Vaas got his name firmly carved in the history books at City Oval in South Africa.
Vaas, who ended his career with 400 ODI wickets, wasn’t a tearaway fast bowler who could instill fear in the opposition batsmen with the new ball. But the left-arm medium pacer had enough guile and accuracy to trouble the batters with swing and variation.
This meant that most of his exploits came with the new ball which he could move both ways and there were times when the captain gave him prolonged spells at the start of the innings.
But even by Vaas’ standard, the opening over against Bangladesh was something special.
Bangladesh were relative newcomers to international cricket despite a few upset wins and Sri Lanka went into the match as clear favourites. And once skipper Sanath Jayasuriya won the toss and put the opposition into bat, Vaas ensured that the result was never in doubt within the first five balls of the match.
He began with a dream delivery for any left-arm pacer as the ball dipped in after landing to crash into Hannan Sarkar’s off stump as the opener went for an expansive drive after looking at the length of the ball.
The promising Mohammad Ashraful was then done in by a ball that was bowled slightly slower, gripped the surface and the batsman could only manage to chip it back to the bowler for a comfortable caught and bowled.
Ehsan-ul-Haq can probably be blamed for poking at a ball moving away from him to hand Vaas his third wicket and a place in the history books as the first bowler to clinch a hat-trick with the first three balls of the match. But there is no denying the fact that it was a piece of clever bowling by the experienced campaigner and the batsman played for a ball coming in and edged it to Mahela Jayawardene at second slip when it just held its line.
If Bangladesh thought that their ordeal was over with Sanwar Hossain hitting a boundary of the very first ball he faced after the hat-trick. Vaas then bowled a wide to somewhat ease the pressure on the opponents before trapping the batsman in front of the wicket with a ball that pitched on the leg stump and then straightened to reduce Bangladesh to 5 for 4 with still one ball left in the opening over.
Vaas completed his five-wicket haul by sending back the other opener, Al Sahariar, in the fifth over. Bangladesh did manage the ignominy of being bowled out for one of the lowest totals in the World Cup history thanks to the resistance shown by Alok Kapali (32) and skipper Khaled Mashud (22) before off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan came to the party with three wickets.
But it was Vaas who had the last laugh as he ended the little cameo from Mashrafe Mortaza in the first ball of his 10th over to bowl Bangladesh out of for a paltry 124 in just 31.1 overs and Sri Lanka openers Jayasuriya and Marvan Atapattu then chased the target in 21.1 overs without any trouble.
Since Vaas’ hat-trick, his teammate Lasith Malinga has taken two hat-tricks and even claimed four wickets in four balls in the 2007 edition against South Africa. But no bowler has managed to achieve that feat on the first three balls of the match.
The bowlers nowadays may be warming up enough to avoid bowling a loosener in the opening over of their spell but not many still manage to hit the strides from the first ball. And that is why Vaas’s spell on February 14 in 2003 is all the more special.
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