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Ozone Zone

Lillian Thomson

Hall of Fame Member
This comes as a result of a football match yesterday where they interviewed Doncaster Rovers fans after they won promotion. One of them said he was in "Ozone Zone". This is because the circumstances of the match meant that they went from total despair to elation in the space of less than a minute so the high was the highest of highs having arisen from such a low place.

So I wondered if anyone has reached such exaltation from a game of cricket - at any level either playing or watching.

I go back to the Test in 1982/83 which England won by 3 runs when Bob Willis's insane tactics to Border and Thomson looked like it had cost England the match when 70 odd were needed for the last wicket. It was much more tense than the more recent 2 run victory because it was only available on the radio so was harder to follow (especially as one of the commentators in the box was Tony Lewis).
 

fredfertang

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
1971 Gillette final - Lanky didn't get enough runs and Kent and Asif Iqbal were cruising when he cracked Simmo through the covers, four more surely, but **** me Jack Bond plucked it out of the air in a leap Paul Collingwood would have been proud of and we went on to win it again
 

Lillian Thomson

Hall of Fame Member
1971 Gillette final - Lanky didn't get enough runs and Kent and Asif Iqbal were cruising when he cracked Simmo through the covers, four more surely, but **** me Jack Bond plucked it out of the air in a leap Paul Collingwood would have been proud of and we went on to win it again
For some reason I didn't see that moment live. I think it might have been because coverage had switched from Grandstand to BBC 2 and we didn't yet have the separate aerial that was needed.
 

Pothas

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
How dare you bring yesterdays tragedy into CC.

Edgbaston 2005 the obvious one though.
 

BoyBrumby

Englishman
England's win over SA in the 2011 WC was a game that took one on the emotional roller coaster.

England posted a pitifully inadequate 171, SA cruised to 63 without loss, lost three quick wickets, recovered to 124/3, collapsed to 127/7, recovered again to get within 11 with those final three wickets intact, only to lose them for 5 runs and come up 6 shy.
 

Neil Pickup

Cricket Web Moderator
Have had more than a few junior matches go through the whole cycle of emotions; the most incredible being a 40-over U10 game in which we chased 220 off the last ball with a scrambled single, having been up against it having conceded 219 (no matter what my team-talk said), cruising at 150/0, before letting it slip away and then inexplicably playing out a maiden to make 9 off 12 into 9 off 4. This then became 3 off 1 with a run-out in the middle, two consecutive wides were bowled, and then we scrambled a single. The boy who was in at the end said, "my mum's driven all the way from Oxford to see me run 19 yards." I told him they were the most important 19 yards he'd ever run in his life...

Football-wise, there's only ever going to be one candidate: Torquay United 1-4 Exeter City - Play-off Semi-Final 2nd Leg - YouTube
 

HeathDavisSpeed

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
The opposite. Essex losing a Natwest Trophy final to Lancashire in 1996.

Bowl out the ****e for less than 200 and with 60 overs to play with, you think it's in the bag.

Then ****ing Glen Chapple happened and we were all out for 57.

I hated Lancashire before that for their "Ooooh a Lanky Lanky" chant, but after this it became open warfare.

EDIT: I should add that redemption came the following season by smashing Warks in the final, but after the midlanders were restricted to 170, I did not count my chickens second time around.
 
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NUFAN

Y no Afghanistan flag
Pretty sure every Aussie fan will agree that the Donald+Klusener run out in the 99 World Cup fits this feeling perfectly.
 

Dan

Hall of Fame Member
SCG Test, 2008 perhaps?

Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh digging in, making it 3 wickets required with an over to go, part-timer Michael Clarke with the ball in hand. Everything points towards a draw.

And he does it.
 

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
This comes as a result of a football match yesterday where they interviewed Doncaster Rovers fans after they won promotion. One of them said he was in "Ozone Zone". This is because the circumstances of the match meant that they went from total despair to elation in the space of less than a minute so the high was the highest of highs having arisen from such a low place.

So I wondered if anyone has reached such exaltation from a game of cricket - at any level either playing or watching.

I go back to the Test in 1982/83 which England won by 3 runs when Bob Willis's insane tactics to Border and Thomson looked like it had cost England the match when 70 odd were needed for the last wicket. It was much more tense than the more recent 2 run victory because it was only available on the radio so was harder to follow (especially as one of the commentators in the box was Tony Lewis).
I remember that one quite well. Like you, I was following it on the radio and like you I was cursing Willis's hopeless captaincy and England's equally hopeless bowling. And then came Beefy's one decent moment in the series. The tension wasn't helped by Tavare initially spilling the ball before Miller grabbed it.

Perhaps 2005 was even more momentous though, and therefore the feelings were even stronger. It didn't matter quite so much in 1982/3 because the Ashes generally changed hands depending on where they were being played whereas in 2005 this was supposed to be our best chance after 16 years of hammerings and if Aus had sneaked home then we really didn't know when we might win the urn again. Those were my feelings, anyway.

Maybe Edgbaston 1981 for some people? That turned around pretty quickly, although was out of the country so I didn't see a single delivery.
 

Lillian Thomson

Hall of Fame Member
I remember that one quite well. Like you, I was following it on the radio and like you I was cursing Willis's hopeless captaincy and England's equally hopeless bowling. And then came Beefy's one decent moment in the series. The tension wasn't helped by Tavare initially spilling the ball before Miller grabbed it.

Perhaps 2005 was even more momentous though, and therefore the feelings were even stronger. It didn't matter quite so much in 1982/3 because the Ashes generally changed hands depending on where they were being played whereas in 2005 this was supposed to be our best chance after 16 years of hammerings and if Aus had sneaked home then we really didn't know when we might win the urn again. Those were my feelings, anyway.

Maybe Edgbaston 1981 for some people? That turned around pretty quickly, although was out of the country so I didn't see a single delivery.
Edgbaston 1981 was a great final day but there wasn't that single euphoric moment because although Botham ended it with 5 wickets in a short time they were 30 runs short and Terry Alderman was at the crease. Another 20 runs nearer and it might have been tense.
 

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
Pretty sure every Aussie fan will agree that the Donald+Klusener run out in the 99 World Cup fits this feeling perfectly.
This is the first one that came to mind - from Aus point of view:

Klusener hits back-to-back boundaries --> ****KKKKKKKKK
Chance to run Donald out missed --> ****KKKKKKKKKKK
Donald is run out --> *delirous*

I can't really think of one from an Indian cricket point of view, where it went from absolute pits to absolute ecstasy in a short period of time.
 

bagapath

International Captain
Reverse ozone zone happened all Indian fans at the Australiasia cup final of 1986. It was a cracking oneday game with the worst finish possible.
 

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