Whenever I am happy or sad about a cricket result, I ask this existential question: How does a cricket result matter to me? It’s a pure intangible. It doesn’t improve my standard of living, help my status in society, or make me achieve any of my life goals. Why am I so invested in this?

Twenty-nine years ago, on March 13, a kid was standing before the gods in the pooja ghar, wishing his team would chase down a score of 251. It was the World Cup semi-final. Venkatesh Prasad had just given us a once-in-a-generation-high, by showing a cocky Aamir Sohail the way to the pavilion after taking his off-stump for an evening walk in the quarter-final. The stage was set to bring the second World Cup home. The kid, who was still learning how to multiply two numbers, could calculate the gravity of this match. He hadn’t seen a World cup win in his living memory. Plenty of Hero Cups and Singer Cups. But never a World Cup. This was it. Only, Sri Lanka had four spinners, a combination that would be handy three decades later as well. But we had Sachin (Tendulkar), and he started well, playing his shots in the V, scoring his 50 in quick time. The score was 98/1.........

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