Fourth one-day at Eden Garden goes down in history of the cricket as a memorable day for Rohit Sharma, who created history by scoring the highest individual score in ODI. After being rested for 10 weeks to heal up his injuries, Rohit opened up at Eden Garden to break the ODI highest record of Sehwag by scoring 264 runs.
Spectators and commentators were thrilled by the style and grace with which Rohit played the strokes allowing no chance to the fielders to dismiss him. Though he had a life when his score was at 50, yet undeterred by the aberration, Rohit mastered the game and the field as a highly trained professional. Indian team piled up mammoth 404 runs for five wickets, which, by any stretch of imagination, is a magnificent score a team can make. It was indeed India’s day as the Indian team bundled the visiting Sri Lankan team for a paltry 251 runs in 43.1 overs. Commentators had all the praise for the skill, wrist work and foot work of Rohit Sharma and the precision of timing the knock. At the same time our bowlers, too, have performed excellently and together the team has brought laurels to India. Rohit actually has two records to his credit: one is that he has made second double centuries in ODI and the second is that he holds the highest score of 264 runs in the ODI.
Cricket was introduced by the British rulers of India. In initial days, as discrimination of Indians was a common practice with the British rulers, Indians were not encouraged to take to cricket game. It first started in Mumbai and then got expanded to other parts of the country. In due course of time, the British realized that Indians could prove good players and lovers of cricket. Cricket clubs came up in the country though Mumbai always stole the march over other playgrounds. Gradually under British rule, it became a fashion to move about in formal dresses and Cricketers clad themselves in white shirt and trousers with white pullover. For a long time, this remained the formal dress and the game itself was wrapped in so many formalities that it became a matter of prestige and social aristocracy to be admitted to India Cricket XI.
India has produced great players, batsmen, bowlers, and fielders. Some of them have entered the record book. Names like Gavaskar, Sachin, Kapil Dev, Ganguly and many others have become legends. Cricket has become extremely popular among our youngsters and they watch the television keenly to imitate their icons. In post-independence period, India has been regularly playing for World Cup and ODIs regularly and BCCI has won a place of distinction with the sportsmen of the world. Cricket is a great source of bringing rural and urban Indian talent on one platform to perform for the nation. We have many cricket luminaries from rural or semi urban areas that shined as superstars of the game. Captain M.S Dhoni hails from Jharkhand and Kapil Dev hailed from Chandigarh. The Indian cricket has no more remained the monopoly of Mumbaikars as was thought for a long time. The team spirit shown by the Indian cricket team within and outside the country is praiseworthy. Both Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar have often said that they played for the country and not for themselves. This shows that our sportsmen and sportswomen are all nationalists to the hilt and they are determined to win their country a name and place in the sports world.
Rohit Sharma deserves kudos for his brilliant knock. He has been trained by great masters of the game like Sachin, Kapil and others and he has seen them playing with style. Of course, cricket carries with it the aura of decency and sobriety that lend special air of pride to the players and to onlookers.
The nation will long remember the historical knock by Rohit Sharma at Eden Garden. That playfield is famous as many great players of cricket have honoured it with their brilliant performance. We are confident that Indian cricket team will always win laurels for the country. It has the potential to be number one team of the world. To Rohit Sharma we say Bravo, well done and we want you do more.
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