The unexpected outcome sets sport apart from other fields of popular culture: Spinoff by Soumya Bhattacharya
The unfolding in front of our eyes of what seems barely credible is one of the enduring and defining charms of sport
On February 16, Sri Lanka, a country whose cricket has been in a shambles for some time now, pulled off a momentous away Test win in Durban against South Africa, one of the strongest teams in contemporary cricket. It was as much the victory itself as the manner of it that resulted in the win being hailed as one of the greatest (and unlikeliest) in the history of the game.
Kusal Perera, who scored a career best 153 not out, was the architect of the triumph. Along with Vishwa Fernando (who scored his career best 6 not out), Perera put on 78 runs for the tenth wicket, a world record in a successful run chase. With the fall of Sri Lanka’s ninth wicket, everyone had thought that the match was over. But it was not. That last wicket partnership — full of grit and gumption and, above all, coming when it was least expected — turned the match on its head.
You could not have made it up. It defied the form book, logic, expectation, even plausibility. But it did happen.
As an incredulous Andrew Fidel Fernando later wondered on cricinfo.com: “In years to come, we might still struggle to believe that this embattled and unfancied batsman, in this profoundly embattled and unfancied team, played an innings of such dazzling quality… [against] the best bowling unit in home conditions on the planet. Could it be the greatest ever?”
The unfolding in front of our eyes of what seems barely credible is one of the enduring and defining charms of sport. Things that are beyond belief, the occurrence of which, in a film, or a play or a novel, would necessitate a willing suspension of disbelief, can — and do — occur in sport.
It does not happen all the time (that would make it boring), but when it does, the unexpected outcome is what sets sport apart from other fields of popular culture.
Think of Leicester City winning the Premier League in 2015-16. An unheralded bunch of players, coached by a man who had started the season with the aim of avoiding relegation from the top flight, beating the combined financial muscle and talents of England’s super clubs. The odds on Leicester City at the start of the season was 5000-1. They not so much defied the odds as battered them.
Think of India winning the cricket World Cup in 1983. A team that had till then been abject at limited-overs cricket, that had embarrassed itself in the first two editions of the World Cup in 1975 and 1979, defeating the West Indies, the reigning champions and the dominant, outstanding team of the era.
Think of Goran Ivanisevic winning the Wimbledon title in 2001. Ranked World Number 125, battling an injury, the Croatian became the first — and, till today, only — wildcard entry to the tournament to win the men’s singles title.
Or think of what is known as arguably the biggest upset in the history of boxing: Buster Douglas knocking out Mike Tyson in 1990. Tyson, the undisputed and undefeated heavyweight champion of the world, the 42-1 favourite, was expected to treat Douglas as so much cannon fodder. Instead, he was knocked out in the tenth round, bringing to an end his first stint of dominance of world boxing.
The unpredictable nature of sport makes it unique. When one sits down to watch a sporting spectacle, one truly does not know how it will unfold over the course of the next hours or days. Not even the players, who are the protagonists in the drama, can know for certain. One of the many thrills of watching sport is the sense of infinite possibilities it offers, the awareness that anything, at all, is possible.
—Spinoff appears every fortnight
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