5 Indian cricketers who are famous for their one-off performance
Indian cricket has seen a lot of champions in its 76-year cricketing history. Lala Amarnath, Vijay Hazare and Vinoo Mankad put Indian cricket on the right track.
With the arrival of the charismatic Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, Indian cricket consolidated its position with its first ever overseas victory. Sunil Gavaskar's performances put India on the world map while Kapil Dev's leadership during the 1983 World Cup brought India, its first big moment in cricket.
The 1990s was all about Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble; with the advent of Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman and MS Dhoni, Indian cricket changed forever. With Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma at the helm of current affairs, anything less than excellence is considered to be a major red flag.
India has become a force due to these champions and there were many who did their bit on the way. After all, India has seen 293 Test cricketers, 222 ODI cricketers and 78 T20 cricketers and there were many who had brilliant one-off performances.
They could not establish themselves to have a long career. Nevertheless, they are still remembered for that one day where they stole the limelight:
#5 Hrishikesh Kanitkar - One boundary hero versus Pakistan, Independence Cup 1998
Hrishikesh Kanitkar, an elegant left-handed batsman was the son of former India Test cricketer Hemant Kanitkar. He was one of the most consistent batsmen in the history of Ranji Trophy having scored a total of 8509 runs.
Kanitkar scored 33 hundreds scoring 10522 FC runs in 148 matches at an average of 52.1. The Maharashtra lad also played a couple of Test matches for India and made his debut in 2000 against Australia in Sydney.
Kanitkar is fondly remembered for his cameo against Pakistan in the Independence Cup in Dhaka in 1998. Chasing a mammoth 316 in 48 overs, Ganguly and Robin Singh had set the platform.
Kanitkar, coming in at number 7 scored an important unbeaten 11. With 9 required off the last over, he farmed the strike with Javagal Srinath and hit the all-important winning boundary when 3 was required off 2 balls.