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We all remember Irfan Pathan for his marvellous spell of 4–0–16–3. He was adjudged the Man of the Match in the finals. Gautam Gambhir with a great knock of 75 was well appreciated by critics and fans. MS Dhoni who took a gamble with Joginder Sharma was applauded for his extra-ordinary captaincy. Let me shed some light onto another player. At the end of 18th over, when Gautam Gambhir got out, the Indian score was 130/5. With Yasir Arafat and Sohail Tanvir to bowl the next 2 overs, the Indian dugout might have wished for another 18 or 20 runs from the next 12 deliveries. But, Rohit Sharma faced 9 off the next 12 deliveries and scored 24 runs , which helped India post a handy total of 157. The fact that India won the match by 5 runs , shows us how important his innings was. Rohit Sharma - 30 runs off 16 balls, 2 Fours, 1 Six was an unsung hero to me.

Many of the Indian cricketers have got nicknames, either carried from their childhood or given by fans/team-mates. Let us look at those interesting names. Virat Kohli - Cheeku Like Cheeku the rabbit from Champak , he had big ears which earned him the nickname Ajinkya Rahane - Jinx It was Shane Warne who gave him that nickname as he couldn't pronounce Ajinkya during his IPL stint with Rajasthan Royals Shikhar Dhawan - Gabbar During his Ranji days, he would joke around to team-mates with Gabbar dialogues from Sholay Rohit Sharma - Hitman His fans gave the name Hitman for his spectacular six-hitting ability Hardik Pandya - Rockstar The   Mumbai Indians' teammates call him as Rockstar, to his style and attitude Murali Vijay - The Monk Murali Vijay shaved his head some time back. Reports say that it earned him the nickname of The Monk. Ravindra Jadeja - Jaddu/Sir Ravindra Jadeja Jaddu is short for his surname Jadeja Parthiv Patel – Bachcha Maybe becaus

Trent Boult was ruthless against Australia at Eden Park during the 2015 World Cup, and his 27/5 helped New Zealand beat their neighbour in a crucial World Cup encounter. Australia decided to bat first with the hopes of capitalising on some of the smaller boundaries to put up a huge score. Boult had a pretty ordinary first spell, as his five overs leaked 24 runs and Australia were going strong at 68-1 after 10 overs. But once Southee & Vettori took a couple of wickets, Brendon McCullum decided to reintroduce Boult after a seven-over break. And, this time, Boult was rejuvenated and was all set with his lethal inswingers. Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Marsh both chopped on in quick succession, and then, Australian captain Michael Clarke gave a catching practice to Kane Williamson to be his third victim. He completed his 5-fer by removing Mitchell Johnson and Starc, with full deliveries. The delivery to Starc was an absolute gem, as it was a fast swinging yorker on the leg-stump, wh

During India’s tour of Bangladesh in 2004, Sachin Tendulkar made his highest score of 248* from 379 balls. But when the 9th batsman went out, Tendulkar was in his 190s and fans were tensed on whether the No.11 batsman Zaheer Khan will allow him to score the double-ton. But Zaheer played a scintillating innings of 75 from 115 balls. It not only allowed Tendulkar to cross the 200-run mark but also helped him score his highest individual score (248) in International cricket. The partnership added 133 runs from 31 overs, and Zaheer was clearly the aggressor among the duo. Zaheer Khan's 75 remained as the highest score at No. 11 for almost a decade till West Indies' Tino Best bettered it with his 95. Currently, the record belongs to Australia's Aston Agar who hit a 98 against England in 2013.

Any century outside the sub-continent was great at those times. If it had happened in Australia, it was much more precious. And the century made by Virender Sehwag during the 2003 Boxing Day test in Melbourne, was no less than a masterpiece. He started his onslaught right from the beginning. The opening wicket partnership lasted till 141 and his partner’s contribution was just 48. Even though wickets fumbled at one end, Sehwag continued his strokeplay which annoyed the Australian bowlers to the core. Even on 195, he didn’t think of defending or taking 5 singles. He wanted to reach there in his own style and unfortunately got perished going for a big hit. The scorecard read 311/4 at the time of his departure. Within the next 25 overs, the Australian bowlers bundled India for just 366. When the rest of the batsmen found it difficult to score occasional boundaries, Sehwag was dealing mainly in fours and sixes. His 195 was crafted with 25 elegant fours and 5 huge sixes. Rahul Dravid’s

Many cricket pundits confirm this as the greatest innings played by an Indian batsman ever in the Limited Overs Cricket. Since the broadcasters of the tournament, BBC - was on strike on that day, the video footage wasn’t available to anyone. It was a must-win match for India against Zimbabwe in the 1983 World Cup. India won the toss and elected to bat first. But the Zimbabwe bowlers Kevin Curran and Peter Rawson breathed fire and India were pushed to 9/4. In came the Indian captain Kapil Dev, at No.6. He made a handy partnership of 60 runs with Roger Binny for the 7th wicket before the latter was trapped leg-before by John Traicos. An early departure of Ravi Shastri made the situation worse and the scorecard read 78/7. The next batsman Madan Lal gave good support to Kapil, scoring 17 off 39-balls. The partnership helped India reach 140/8 before Lal was scalped by Curran. When the last batsman Syed Kirmani came in to bat, none were aware of the majestic partnership yet to come.

A stellar performance in the 2007 Deodhar Trophy helped him get into the Indian team for the inaugural T20 WorldCup in 2007. He was warming the benches for the entire series. But just before the final match, Virender Sehwag got injured and he was chosen to open the innings. A debut in the T20 World Cup Final, that too against Pakistan. He started off with a six in the first over itself. But the innings was short-lived, as he mistimed a pull towards mid-on to be caught by Shoiab Malik. He scored 15 runs from 8 balls including a four and a six. It’s Yusuf Pathan