The year which gave so much cricketing fun, starting from the ICC World Cup till the last day’s Big Bash League match which involved nail-biting finish. We experienced some amazing display of cricket all over the world which will be very hard to forget for cricket fans. Let’s take a look at some of the best moments from the year gone by. These were some memorable cricket moments from 2015.
Two Double Centuries in a World Cup
The big man Chris Gayle became the first cricketer in the history of game to smash a double century in a world cup tournament. His duo came in a pool match against Zimbabwe. He smacked a 215 from 147 balls witnessing each ball of the innings and made a record partnership with Marlon Samuels of 372 runs. Gayle was caught on the last ball of the innings.
His brutal innings consisted of 16 massive sixes and 10 fours. This innings broke the previous best score in a world cup match by Gary Kirsten who scored 188 not out earlier against U.A.E.
However, this record didn’t stand for long and was broken by Martin Guptill in the same tournament and that too against West Indies in the first knock-out match played at Wellington. He scored a well constructed 237 hitting some serious sixes out of the park. This innings came in just 163 balls, including 24 fours & 11 sixes. The year also witnessed most ODI tons in a calendar year with 107 centuries.
New Dawn for Test Cricket
The first ever Day-Night Test Match was played on 27th November 2015 between Australia and New Zealand at Adelaide. It showcased a Pink-Kookaburra ball with some extra shine for better sight under the lights. It had a `dinner’ break rather than lunch.
Cricket All-Stars
We were so lucky and fortunate to enjoy the masterclass display of old school boys of cricket this year. Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne together stood up to organize a 3 Match T20 Series at U.S.
Both the teams(Sachin’s Blasters and Warne’s Warriors) had the great legends of their era. Some of the names who played this series were Sachin, Warne, McGrath, Hayden, Sehwag, Lara, Wasim Akram and many more.
All three match were won by Warne Warriors. However, it was a sheer pleasure to watch them play together no matter what the results may be. The matches were held at New York, Houston and Los Angeles.
India ends Proteas’ 9-Year winning streak
The new all-time Indian Test Captain Virat Kohli responded beautifully to the critics made by some plastic fans since he took over the captaincy. India won a Test Series in Sri Lanka followed by a clean-sweep at home against South Africa under his captaincy.
This was a huge victory against a No.1 Test Team which ended South Africa’s unbeaten winning streak for nine years. The last match at Feroz shah Kotla, Delhi ensured a 3-0 series win which lifted India to second spot in ICC Test Rankings. Ashwin was the star of the series with his magical spinning deliveries.
Ashwin topping the ICC tables
Ashwin ended up as No.1 Test Bowler with 62 wickets in just 9 Matches. He started the year with 15th Rank and continuously made improvements in his bowling. He is the first Indian bowler after Bishan Singh Bedi who topped the charts in 1973.
Not only this, Ashwin was also ranked the No.1 Test All-rounder for the year after his contributions with the bat. He made 248 runs in 14 innings, hitting half centuries against Australia, Sri Lanka and South Africa.
