12 centrespread centrespread 13 JANUARY 13-19, 2019 JANUARY 13-19, 2019 Hockey Cricket 1975: Golden Age Ends The 1975 World Cup victory has remained the last tri- 1983: Triumph of the Underdog umph of Indian hockey, which had dominated the event India has won the World Cup thrice: the ODI cup at the Olympics for decades. India, captained by Ajit Pal in 1983 and 2011 and the T20 World Cup in 2007. Singh, defeated Pakistan by a margin of 2-1. The winning However, the 1983 victory of the Prudential Cup, goal was scored by Ashok Kumar, the son of legendary as the World Cup was known then, in England was hockey great Dhyan Chand. However, the goal wasn’t special as no one gave India a chance of winning the without its own share of drama as Pakistan players tournament. India was not seen as a winning team claimed the ball had not crossed the goal line. even when it reached the semi-fi nal. But it defeated the hosts and went on to take on then cricketing giants A victory in sports becomes sweeter West Indies. The fi nal was an upset of even greater proportions. Indian bowlers bundled out West Indies when it brings back memories of earlier batsmen for 140, after setting a paltry target of 183. triumphs. Virat Kohli, for example, 2007: Epoch Win said India winning the Test series India’s victory over Pakistan at the fi nal of the inaugural against Australia on January 7 was T20 World Cup in 2007 left a lasting impact on the game. MS Dhoni was made captain of the Indian T20 team af- more emotional for him than the World Table Tennis ter Dravid, Tendulkar and Ganguly ruled Cup win of 2011 under MS Dhoni. Ravi 2018: Creating themselves out of the format. Memories History of a disastrous ODI World Cup Shastri, too, found more joy in this Indian women's campaign earlier that year also victory as coach than his triumph as a table tennis team called for a fresh beginning. made history in Gold The energy he brought to member of the World Cup winning team Coast when they the team and Yuvraj of 1983. Here are a few got the country its Singh’s brilliant perfor- fi rst gold at the mance — including six great team sports victories Commonwealth sixes in an over against Games. Manika England — made it a memo- that made India proud. Batra, Madhurika rable win for the men in blue. :: Suman Layak Patkar and Mouma Das defeated Singapore. 2001: Famous Turnaround Among Test victories, India’s win over Aus- tralia in 2001 should count among the Track Events most memorable, es- pecially for the man- Fleet-Footed Relay ner in which it rejuve- Teams nated Indian cricket. India The 1980s saw India domi- was already 1-0 behind in the nating women's relays in Asian series. Then VVS Laxman made athletics meets, with the likes an epic 281 and this was followed of PT Usha, Shiny Wilson in the by a hat-trick from Harbhajan Singh. team. Then came Hima Das, The crowd at Eden Gardens couldn’t who became the fi rst Indian have asked for more from a team being athlete to win a gold medal in a led by Sourav Ganguly. India went on to track event at the IAAF World win the series. U20 Championships, in 2018. Her 400m dash in Finland drew accolades as she accelerated Tennis on the last 100 meter stretch, Football overtaking three 1987: Unexpected Progress Indian competitors. In The year saw India’s third Davis Express 1951: Best of Times Cup semi-fi nal win, where it de- Leander Paes and Ma- India won the gold in the inaugural Asian Games. It went on the 2018 Asian Games, Das, MR feated an Australian team that had hesh Bhupathi, also to reach the Olympic semi-fi nals in 1956 after defeating Aus- ace player Pat Cash, by a margin of known as The Indian tralia 4-2 in the quarterfi nal. But Yugoslavia stopped India 4-1. Poovamma, Sarita Gayakwad and VK 3-2 (Cash only played the doubles Express, succeeded match). The Vijay Amritraj-led on the ATP circuit 1962: End of an Era Vismaya won the women's 4×400 team put up a spectacular display. before they brought India defeated South Korea metres relay. As Ramesh Krishnan, the highest in gold for India. The 2-1 to win the gold at the the fi rst runner, ranked tennis player in the tie duo won the French Asian Games in Jakarta. This Das gave a huge after Cash, won both his singles Open and the Wim- was the last major triumph of lead to the team in matches. Amritraj won one mak- bledon in 1999. They the Indian team. India played the relay race. ing it three for India. Though India won the gold for India in front of a largely partisan in the Doha Asian lost to Sweden in the fi nals, its Badminton crowd. Some sources say Pa- progress was the fi rst step in mak- Games in 2006. Som- kistan hockey team members ing tennis a popular sport in India. dev Devvarman and 2018: Shuttlers’ Delight were the only spectators sup- Vijay Amritraj, sometimes referred Sanam Singh, won In- India got its fi rst mixed team gold at the Commonwealth Games porting India that day. Goals as the A of tennis (B being Bjorn dia the tennis doubles in 2018. The event, which was organised in Australia’s Gold by PK Banerjee and Jarnail Borg and C being Jimmy Connors), gold in 2010 in China’s Coast, saw India wining six medals. The team included Saina Singh saw India through. had fi nally delivered. Guangzhou. Nehwal, PV Sindhu, Ashwini Ponappa and Kidambi Srikkanth..