What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? One is hurtling forward through the physical space, gathering kinetic energy with each passing nanosecond until it's red hot and burning through anything that dares to come between itself and its intended target. Other is steadfast, impenetrable, unbreachable, rooted; nothing and no one can uproot it from its chosen position. When the two meet there is bound to be resistance - friction. (Match Blog | Streaming | Scorecard | Full Coverage)
Think back to the turn of the century. Australia are an immovable force in cricket. Though not the progenitors of the sport, nor ones to immediately take to it, they are, however, a power of much reckoning by the end of the 20th century. Charging toward them, with wind beneath their wings following a maiden ICC Cricket World Cup win, are India. They clash, first as unequals, though later they grow into counterparts, forging a rivalry out of cricket’s ever-blazing furnace that remains bound to the arena; beyond the green grass and towering stands, there is no sign of animosity between the two, there never was.
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Though their first meeting was as recent as the 1980s, India and Australia have since played 150 One-Day Internationals, with the latter 83 to 57 in front. That statistic holds immense weight; India have enjoyed the least success out of any teams they have faced against Australia in this particular format of cricket, with a win percentage of merely 38 evidence of a gulf in class. When the two renew their rivalry on Sunday, November 19, at the Narendra Modi Stadium, India will hope to budge the numbers slightly in the other direction.
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India are chasing a third ODI World Cup title. Splitting them from their target are the record champions of this format, Australia, whose five triumphs are three more than the next best on the list: India. Fortune favours the Men in Blue on the eve of the clash; India have yet to lose a match in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 and can bank on the support of a cricket-frenzied crowd of over a lakh people when they face Australia inside the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Victors are rarely stirred by things as insignificant as fortune, however - as Australia, who are used to such things, must know inherently by now.
India and Australia will enter the field as equals on Sunday; that was not always the case. Back on the other side of the bimillennium, when the Men in Blue were still building their brand, this clash was much akin to the one that had occurred aeons earlier between David and Goliath.
As the tale goes, the almighty Goliath is vanquishing whoever dares to cross his path until David, with his wit and his will, unexpectedly smacks the giant in his head with a stone, shattering his ego and, indeed, his skull. In the early 21st century retelling of this ancient Greek saga, reenacted by India and Australia in Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai, India - David - conquers the mighty Australia - Goliath - forcing an end to their 16-match unbeaten streak in Test cricket. It is one of India’s finest hours in cricket: a series won after coming from a match down; a win rescued from the jaws of defeat in Kolkata, one that will enter sporting folklore forever.
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Goliath, however, doesn’t stay down in this retelling of the story. Two years after their surprising defeat against India in India, Australia beat the up-and-comers in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003 final, a tournament earmarked by many as a would-be turning point in Indian cricket, a juncture after which one may even consider India among the elites. However, Australia’s rampant triumph ensures India remain at an arm’s length - much to their indignation.
Resentment grows between the two teams over the years that follow, anger that finally boils over in the “Monkeygate” scandal of 2008. In the aftermath of the controversy, the two teams contest, perhaps, one of the most infamously bitter encounters in Test cricket, one that only deepens the hatred now growing furiously between the two.
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Still, Australia remain a perch above India, looking down on the Men in Blue from their position of power, that is, until Mahendra Singh Dhoni takes his team Down Under and returns with an ODI series victory. A decade later, Virat Kohli repeats the feat with the Test team, finally breaking the glass ceiling that has kept the pair apart for so long.
Presently, India and Australia can look eye to eye as equals, but does that satisfy either? India are on the up, as they always have been, flashing forward as an unstoppable force, looking to set ablaze whatever comes between them and their target. Australia, as they always have been, are immovable, rooted at the summit, waiting for the next challenger to their throne. There is bound to be friction when the two meet again on Sunday - but then again, when was there not?
