Playing It My Way: My Autobiography (26 page)

India 285 (
SR Tendulkar 61
, SC Ganguly 60, VVS Laxman 41; SK Warne 4–92, DW Fleming 3–70) and 110 (SC Ganguly 43,
SR Tendulkar 0
; DW Fleming 5–30, GD McGrath 3–35)

Australia won by 285 runs

2nd Test. Melbourne. 26–30 December 1999

Australia 405 (MJ Slater 91, AC Gilchrist 78, RT Ponting 67; J Srinath 4–130, AB Agarkar 3–76) and 208–5 dec (AC Gilchrist 55, ME Waugh 51*; AB Agarkar 3–51, A Kumble 2–72)

India 238 (
SR Tendulkar 116
, SC Ganguly 31; B Lee 5–47, GD McGrath 3–39) and 195 (
SR Tendulkar 52
, HH Kanitkar 45; ME Waugh 2–12, B Lee 2–31, DW Fleming 2–46)

Australia won by 180 runs

3rd Test. Sydney. 2–4 January 2000

India 150 (
SR Tendulkar 45
, R Dravid 29; GD McGrath 5–48, B Lee 4–39) and 261 (VVS Laxman 167,
SR Tendulkar 4
; GD McGrath 5–55, B Lee 2–67)

Australia 552–5 dec (J Langer 223, RT Ponting 141*, SR Waugh 57; J Srinath 2–105,
SR Tendulkar 1–34
)

Australia won by an innings and 141 runs

Australia won the series 3–0

1st Test. Mumbai. 24–26 February 2000

India 225 (
SR Tendulkar 97
, AB Agarkar 41*; JH Kallis 3–30, AA Donald 2–23, SM Pollock 2–43) and 113 (R Dravid 37,
SR Tendulkar 8
; SM Pollock 4–24, WJ Cronje 3–23)

South Africa 176 (G Kirsten 50, HH Gibbs 47;
SR Tendulkar 3–10
, J Srinath 3–45) and 164–6 (HH Gibbs 46, JH Kallis 36*; A Kumble 4–56)

South Africa won by 4 wickets

2nd Test. Bangalore. 2–6 March 2000

India 158 (A Kumble 36*,
SR Tendulkar 21
; N Boje 2–10, SM Pollock 2–26, M Hayward 2–40) and 250 (M Azharuddin 102, A Kumble 28,
SR Tendulkar 20
; N Boje 5–83, AA Donald 2–56)

South Africa 479 (L Klusener 97, JH Kallis 95, N Boje 85, G Kirsten 79, DJ Cullinan 53; A Kumble 6–143, M Kartik 3–123)

South Africa won by an innings and 71 runs

South Africa won the series 2–0

India started well under Sourav, winning the ODI series 3–2 against South Africa in March 2000. But soon afterwards cricket plummeted to a low in the wake of the match-fixing scandal. The credibility of the game had been compromised and I found the revelations about matches being thrown for money distasteful and disgusting. The whole thing was repulsive and what was seriously worrying was that fans had started to lose faith and the integrity of our sport was in doubt. We desperately needed to bring credibility back to the game and we hoped that we could do so in the course of playing the Australians at home in a much-anticipated Test series in February–March 2001. It would allow fans to move away from the sordid tales of corruption and focus on the real thing: quality Test cricket.

At the time, Steve Waugh’s Australian team were hammering opposition teams both at home and away. They had won fifteen Test matches in a row when they landed in India. In Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie, Damien Fleming, Michael Kasprowicz and Shane Warne they had a bowling line-up capable of taking wickets in all conditions. The batting was also exceptional, with Matthew Hayden, Michael Slater, Justin Langer, the Waugh twins, Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist all in good form.

A few months before the Australia series my family had relocated from Sahitya Sahawas to our new haven, an apartment at La Mer Residency in Mumbai’s Bandra West, a move to which I contributed very little, I have to confess. It was Anjali who organized everything and all I did was walk into a sprawling apartment with all my things beautifully set up for me.

On the morning of 26 January 2001, just ten months after we had moved into the new apartment, I heard Anjali screaming in fear, yelling ‘Earthquake!’ The building was swaying from side to side and my first thought was that the builder must have messed up with the construction. However, within moments I realized that it was far more serious than that and people from nearby buildings were all screaming ‘
Bhago, bhago!
’ (Run, run!) Because we were on the tenth and eleventh floors, it would have taken us a few minutes to walk down with two kids, so all we did was stand in the middle of the drawing room, huddled together as a family, praying for the catastrophe to stop.

The earthquake that rocked Western India lasted less than a minute, but it left devastation in its wake. The town of Bhuj in Gujarat was almost destroyed and we in Mumbai did not escape unscathed. From my bedroom at La Mer I could see Mount Mary Church on the one side and Siddhivinayak Temple on the other and for days after the earthquake I would pray at night, urging God never to unleash such wrath on us again.

In fact, even when I played a Duleep Trophy match in Pune for West Zone against East Zone in early February, I still could not sleep properly at night. The nightmare of the quake was too fresh to forget. In Pune we were staying in an ordinary hotel but the staff did everything possible to make things comfortable for me. In fact, they overdid things on occasions and were themselves embarrassed as a result. To ensure we all had hot water, the maintenance person had switched on the boiler very early in the morning. As a result, the boiler overheated and all we ended up with was black muddy water in the room. Being used to staying in five-star hotels, initially I was irritated with the hotel staff, but later I found it funny that they were trying so hard to make me comfortable. The effort was overwhelming and left a lasting impression.

Soon after the end of the Duleep Trophy game, in which I scored 199 in our only innings, a number of journalists asked me if we stood a chance against Australia. I said we did and felt confident we could beat them, provided we were able to put them under pressure. It seemed to me they weren’t accustomed to handling pressure and it would be interesting to see how they reacted if we gained the upper hand.

Though we lost the first Test in Mumbai in three days, we did have our moments in the match. I scored 76 in the first innings, getting out when I went for an expansive shot to a McGrath delivery that was wide of off stump. In the Australian first innings we reduced them to 99–5, with Harbhajan Singh taking three quick wickets, before an aggressive counter-attacking partnership between Hayden and Gilchrist took the match away from us again. We dropped a few catches and they both managed to score hundreds, giving Australia a sizeable first-innings lead.

We started the second innings with thirty overs remaining in the second day and had lost two wickets by the time we came to the last over. Then the nightwatchman Nayan Mongia was hit on the finger by a ball from Gillespie and retired hurt. I had to go in and play out the last five balls, a task that is never easy, particularly with Gillespie bowling at his best. The next morning I resumed with Rahul Dravid, knowing it was going to be a stern test of our character. McGrath and Gillespie were bowling in tandem and while Rahul mostly played Gillespie, I played out a very good spell from McGrath. We hardly rotated strike, knowing that once we had played out the initial burst from these two bowlers, things would become a lot easier.

I scored a half-century but I think even my harshest critic would concede that I got out in a most unfortunate manner. I played a full-blooded pull shot to a short Mark Waugh delivery, which would have been a definite boundary had the ball not hit Justin Langer’s back at forward short leg and spooned up to midwicket. Ricky Ponting ran fifteen yards and dived forward for a very good catch. The momentum had shifted and Australia soon capitalized on the advantage and closed out the game. The Australians had now won sixteen straight Tests and needed to win just one more to set a new world record.

The Kolkata Test match was undoubtedly one of the best I played in, but it didn’t start well for us. Australia scored 445 in the first innings, thanks to 110 from Steve Waugh and 97 from Matthew Hayden, and when we were at a dismal 128–8 at the end of day two, with the Australian quartet of McGrath, Gillespie, Kasprowicz and Warne all taking wickets, not even the most ardent Indian fan thought we’d be able to save the match. I had scored ten in our first innings and everybody was dejected after our frankly pathetic batting display. John Wright, our coach, was livid and took it out on a few plastic bottles in the dressing room.

The poor performance hurt even more because it followed the high of the first ever Indian hat-trick in Test cricket. Harbhajan had picked up Ponting, Gilchrist and Warne in succession on the first day, swinging the match in our favour again after Australia had reached a position of strength at 252–4. Bhajji was brilliant throughout the series and this was the very best I had ever seen him bowl. First he had Ponting lbw, then he followed up with the wicket of Adam Gilchrist. Understandably there was a lot of talk among the players before the hat-trick ball and I had an urge to tell Bhajji what I thought he should bowl to Warne, the new batsman. However, I decided not to and all I said was that he should bowl what he thought best. He ended up bowling a low full toss, which Warne played into the hands of forward short leg.

At the end of our first innings on the third morning at Eden Gardens, even though we failed to avoid the follow-on, there were signs of better things for us when Laxman, batting at six, managed to add a few runs with the tail. He scored 59 and was the last man out. There was a brief discussion in the dressing room and we all agreed that Laxman, who was obviously in good touch, should go in at three for the second innings, with Rahul moving to six. None of us had any idea that this swap would result in history being written.

Laxman and Rahul batted like champions in the second innings and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing an extraordinary batting effort unfold before my eyes. India scored 335 runs in the second innings on day four without losing a single wicket. Not to lose a wicket in a day is unbelievable and to do it against the world’s best team makes the achievement all the more miraculous. Laxman played some unbelievable shots off Warne and both he and Rahul had to battle serious physical exhaustion in the intense heat and humidity, but they held on, eventually scoring 281 and 180 respectively, and by the end of the day we knew we couldn’t lose the Test match. In fact, we had started to believe that we had a slim chance of winning if we bowled well on the last day. This in itself was a dramatic turnaround, because for the first time in the series we had managed to put Australia under pressure, just as I’d hoped.

We declared early on day five with a lead of 383 and knew we had a chance if we could force the Australians back with a few quick wickets. Harbhajan was bowling with exceptional skill, but we needed someone to back him up from the other end. We did not get the wickets we were after in the post-lunch session, however, and Australia went to tea with just three down. The game was drifting towards a draw unless something dramatic happened.

Wanting to try something different, Sourav decided to give my bowling a go. He hoped that a couple of breakthroughs might open up the game and he knew that the large Kolkata crowd would get behind us if they sensed an opportunity. I would always bowl for two or three overs when there were partnerships, and being an irregular bowler, I had licence to experiment. On the fifth-day pitch I decided to bowl leg-spin, pitching the ball in the rough with two left-handers at the crease. It was one of those rare days when the ball came out perfectly and I managed to take three quick wickets for the team in a five-over spell, including the wickets of in-form Matthew Hayden and the dangerous Adam Gilchrist.

However, the wicket that gave me the most satisfaction was that of Shane Warne. I tried to bowl him a googly and the ball ended up being a half-tracker, landing in the middle of the pitch before turning in to hit Warne plumb in front. Warne had perhaps misread the delivery and had first tried to cut before playing a half-pull. I had bamboozled one of the great spinners of all time!

We now had the opening we were after and Bhajji did the rest. When we finally took the last wicket of Glenn McGrath, with just three overs or so remaining in the match, the stadium went mad. Close to 100,000 spectators at Eden Gardens could not believe we had managed to win – and it was only the third time in history that a team had won after following on.

We celebrated for a long time after the match. The atmosphere in the changing room had changed completely after such an incredible win. There was a tremendous sense of positivity and we started to believe that we could go on to win the series. The Australians had collapsed in the face of sustained pressure. The myth of invincibility had been shattered. The series was now locked at 1–1, with all to play for in the third and final Test at Chennai.

The impact of the victory, celebrated all across the country, is perhaps illustrated by an incident involving SK Bansal, one of the umpires officiating in the Test. Mr Bansal later recounted to me that he had gone out for a meal after the match and his driver had mistakenly taken a wrong turn. He was heading the wrong way up a one-way street and was soon stopped by a traffic constable. Mr Bansal, dreading the consequences the driver would be subjected to, stepped out of the car to ask the constable to forgive the poor fellow. The constable, who turned out to be an ardent cricket fan, recognized Mr Bansal and promptly decided to let the driver off.

The Australians started well, with Matthew Hayden once again leading the way. He had batted wonderfully throughout the series and was the only Australian batsman who looked comfortable against Harbhajan. He scored an impressive double hundred and the Australians notched up a first-innings score of 391. I bowled a good spell on the first day, carrying on from Kolkata, and got the ball to turn sharply but did not take any wickets, but by the end of the spell, the skin of my fingers had started to peel off and I was finding it hard to grip the ball.