‘June 18’- Why this day has a special place in cricket history?

The game of cricket never fails to spring surprises and shocks to its fans. The intoxicating uproars of dominance and emergence of ‘rag-tagged’ teams to topple the ‘big boys’ of the game have remained one of the most cherished folklores of world cricket.

June 18th is a distinguished date for most of the cricket fans as some cherish it while some others hate recalling those nightmares. As it’s the same date today, let’s recall top three bizarre events in cricket history that unfolded on this day:

Bangladesh vs Australia, 2005

The early years of the twentieth century marked the high points of Australian cricket.

Australia won three back to back editions of the World Cup and they conquered Ashes three out of four times. To cut long story short, they had earned the reputation of being ‘invincible’.

However, they would most definitely like to forget the memories of June 18 as it was the day when they suffered a defeat by minnows Bangladesh.

Bangladesh had only 9 wins under their belt from 107 games played till them and the Aussies were clearly dominating the cricket arena.

But strangely fortunes turned as Bangladesh successfully chased down 250 runs with four balls to spare to hand over Australia a humiliating defeat.

Bangladesh vs India, 2015

The three-match ODI series began on a disappointing note for Indians fans on June 18. Team Bangladesh outplayed India for the fourth time in 30 ODIs to inflict a 79-runs defeat to India.

Left-arm pacer Mustafizur Rahman became the second Bangladesh bowler to complete a five-wicket haul on his debut. It was also Bangladesh’s highest score against India in ODIs.

The visitors were bowled out for 228 in 46 overs in pursuit of 308 runs. Although Rohit Sharma scored 63 runs to help India narrow the margin, it wasn’t sufficient enough to hand them over a victory against the Tigers.

Also Read: Three teams to play their debut Test against India

Pakistan vs India, 2017

Pakistan routed its arch-rival India by 180 runs to clinch the Champions Trophy on June 18, 2017.

Put into bat first, the green shirts posted a massive total of 339 runs with a loss of four wickets for the men in blue.

India in reply could only post 158 runs in reply. Pakistan scripted history by winning the Champions Trophy title for the first time since its inception from 1998 as Pakistan scored its second-highest score against India.