Playing It My Way: My Autobiography (31 page)

We played two practice games, both against the KwaZulu-Natal side. While we batted reasonably in the first game on 4 February in Pietermaritzburg, with Yuvi and Dravid both doing well, the game on 6 February at Chatsworth didn’t go according to plan. We managed to get the opposition out fairly cheaply, and I remember Sourav saying that, because we needed as much batting practice as possible, the opposition should bowl the full quota of fifty overs to us, even if we’d achieved the target. In fact, towards the end of the Natal innings we were all trying to give them some extra runs and Sourav kept close-in fielders in the ring to allow them to score freely, so that we would have a decent total to chase down. But in our reply we collapsed well before the fifty overs and the question of the opposition bowling the full quota never arose! We were all out for 158 and lost the match by 32 runs.

In both matches I had batted at number three, which was the result of a decision that had been taken soon after we had reached South Africa. There had been a meeting of the senior players and the coach, and most of my team-mates, including Sourav, Rahul and Srinath, felt I should bat at number three in the competition. Only Anil suggested that I should open. The majority argument was that at the top of the order I might get a good ball early on and get out, which would end up putting the team under pressure. After the second practice game John Wright came to my room and asked me if I was really happy batting in the number three position. I assured him that I would bat anywhere the team wanted me to. John, however, insisted that I should voice my personal opinion as a player, so I said that, if it were up to me, I would prefer to open. I went on to say that I felt I could control the game from that position, and I also told him that there was no guarantee anyway that I wouldn’t get out early if I was batting at number three or four, as it only takes one good ball. So I thought my best opportunity to set up the match for India was as an opener. John agreed with me and finally convinced Sourav and the rest of the team that having me at the top of the order was our best option.

The less-than-impressive performances in our warm-up matches had made the first pool match on 12 February 2003, against the Netherlands, extremely important. We had to start well to give ourselves a fighting chance in the tournament. Even if the Netherlands were not the best opposition in the world, they had some good players in their team who had experience of playing on the county circuit in England. As I went out to bat, I was unusually nervous. The expectations in India were huge and the dressing room was also expecting a lot from me, now that they’d agreed to my wish to open the batting. I’d caused our plans to be changed completely and now it was up to me to deliver.

I was deliberately conservative in my approach at the start and set out to build a solid foundation before we went on the attack. We had been getting out for scores of 150 and less and it was important that we batted the full fifty overs and posted a reasonable total. I managed to score a half-century and, with Mongia contributing 42 runs down the order, we just passed the 200-run mark, making 204 all out. It wasn’t a score to rave about and we knew that with one good innings from a Netherlands batsman we might have a contest on our hands. At the team meeting before the start of their innings we agreed that we should play as if we had to bowl the opposition out for 150, to force us to apply ourselves properly. Eventually, it was Srinath and Kumble, with four wickets each, who helped us achieve that aim as we bowled them out for 136. We had not played our best but had still managed to win.

Our next match was against defending champions Australia at Centurion on 15 February. They were playing excellent cricket and were firm favourites to win the tournament again. We played a very bad game from the start and lost a heap of early wickets. I scored 36 and we were bowled out for a very poor 125 and lost the game by nine wickets.

Our underwhelming performances in South Africa so far were not going down well with supporters at home and we heard that some irate fans had vented their fury that evening by throwing tar at Mohammad Kaif’s home in Uttar Pradesh. It was alarming to read about the hostile reaction in India and I eventually had to issue a formal appeal, in the form of a media release, to try to pacify the fans. I stated that we were all trying our best and there was no dearth of commitment at our end. This had some effect and we were able to concentrate once again on the task at hand.

In 2003 Zimbabwe were a very good side in home conditions, and included some very talented players in their ranks. It was only after 2004–5, when the country was laid low by political turmoil, that many of these players stopped playing for Zimbabwe. In our pool game against them in Harare we played well from the start and won by 83 runs in the end. We could sense that we were getting back into form and it was surprising how one good win could boost a team’s confidence. I scored 81 off ninety-one balls and Bhajji picked up the crucial wicket of Andy Flower, Zimbabwe’s best batsman. Now we needed to carry this form forward, as we would soon be playing England in what was likely to be a crucial match for us, one that could guarantee a place in the Super Six.

Before the England match, however, we had to play Namibia on 23 February and it was important not to take it easy against a relatively weak team. We kept the pressure up and scored 311–2, with Sourav and me both scoring hundreds. Our bowlers then dismissed the opposition for 130, with Yuvraj Singh taking four wickets for six runs, and though not much could be read into our performance against a team like Namibia, it was apparent that things were moving in the right direction.

The build-up to the England game at Durban on 26 February was something else. England versus India is always a big game, but this time it was the World Cup and it was a must-win game for both teams. Apparently Andrew Caddick said a number of things before the game and our players who read those statements were fired up on the eve of the match. I had not read them and to this day don’t know exactly what was said. I had scored runs in all three matches so far and was simply looking forward to another opportunity.

We won a very important toss and decided to bat first. Batting under lights at Durban is always a challenge and winning the toss had given us the early advantage. Our plan was not to give away early wickets, even if we didn’t score quickly. Once the first five or six overs had gone by we started shifting gear and looking for runs, passing 50 in no time. Durban always offers something for the fast bowlers and I knew that Caddick and the other tall England bowlers would look to exploit the extra bounce by bowling short of a length. I was ready for the short ball and it finally came in the ninth over of the innings when Caddick bowled one a foot and a half outside the off stump. It was exactly what I was waiting for and I swivelled back and hit him over midwicket for six. The moment the ball hit my bat I knew it was going the distance.

In his next over I played one of my favourite shots of the World Cup. I was hoping Caddick would over-compensate and bowl a fuller delivery, which he did. It wasn’t a bad ball but I managed to play an off drive on the up, bisecting mid off and the bowler for four. The timing and impact felt wonderful. I hit two more boundaries in the same over and we raced to 75 off just eleven overs.

It was a dream start in a very big game and it took a great spell from Andrew Flintoff to bring England back into the match. He conceded just 15 off his ten overs and picked up two wickets. He caught and bowled Sehwag for 23 and then had me caught by Collingwood at point for 50. It was an extraordinary spell that undid our good start. At this point Yuvraj was getting increasingly restless in the dressing room and I remember saying to him that it had to be his day. It was now his responsibility to finish the innings off with a flourish and make sure that we did not squander the early advantage. Yuvraj and Rahul went on to bat beautifully to take us to 250 at the end of our innings, but we still felt we were 20 runs short.

The England innings started well for us with an incredible piece of fielding by Mohammad Kaif. Nick Knight, the left-handed opening batsman, had played the ball off the back foot and was running a quick single when Kaif swooped in from cover to pick up the ball and dived full-length to break the wicket. England were 6–1 and we had an early breakthrough. It was an excellent piece of athleticism from one of our best fielders.

We picked up Marcus Trescothick, the other opener, when he mistimed a pull off Zaheer and ended up giving me an easy catch at backward square. It was then that Ashish Nehra took over. It was easily the best I have seen Ashish bowl and he looked a man possessed that night in Durban. He was getting the ball to move both ways and was bowling at speeds between 140 and 145 kph, making it extremely difficult for the England batsmen to negotiate his pace and swing. It must be one of the best spells of fast bowling by an Indian bowler in a limited-over international. By the thirtieth over England were eight wickets down with more than 140 runs still required. Rahul, who was keeping wicket in that tournament, and Sehwag took some good catches off Ashish’s bowling and the whole team was fired up. We could sense we were knocking on the door of the Super Six stage.

India eventually won the match by 82 runs. It was now a question of sustaining the momentum for the rest of the tournament. This time there were great celebrations back home and India were suddenly the team to beat in the competition. While Durban had set us on course, our next match against Pakistan was just massive. It was one of the most high-pressure cricket matches I have played in and had enormous significance for our fans back home. Without doubt it was the match of the World Cup.

The first time I heard people talking about the India–Pakistan fixture at Centurion Park on 1 March 2003 was exactly a year earlier, when some of my friends had been discussing it with great excitement. It was always going to be a huge game for both teams. The intensity was such that I could not sleep properly for three nights before the game. If there was ever a match we wanted to win, it was this one. The nation would brook no failure and for many of our fans this was the true final. It really did not matter to them what happened in the rest of the tournament, as long as we managed to beat Pakistan at Centurion.

The ground was buzzing hours before the match. It was sport at its best. This is why I played cricket, to be out in the middle for my team, on the world’s biggest cricketing stage, against India’s arch rival. Listening to the national anthem and singing the words gave me goose bumps.

Pakistan batted first after winning the toss and put together a very good score. Saeed Anwar held the innings together and made a very important hundred for his team. Their total of 273 was at least 20 runs more than we wanted to chase. As we were walking off the pitch, Sourav asked me if we should hold a brief team meeting. I said there was no need. Everybody knew what to do and it was now time to go out there and do the job.

During the break I hardly spoke to anyone at all. Nor did I eat much. In fact, for most of the time I had my headphones on and listened to music, trying to work myself into the right frame of mind. I just had a big bowl of ice cream and a banana to give myself some energy and asked one of the players to let me know as soon as the umpires had walked out to the middle. When they were in position, I picked up my bat and went out to start the run chase.

Generally it was Sehwag who took first strike, but this was a day with a difference. On the way out I told him that I would take strike and said that we needed to play out the initial burst from the Pakistani fast bowlers before we started attacking. Needless to say, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar were capable of doing a lot of early damage.

That’s not how it turned out, however. In the very first over of our innings, I drove Wasim to the cover boundary. Then I took a single off the next ball and Sehwag scored a boundary off the final delivery. Shoaib Akhtar bowled the second over and in many ways it turned out to be the defining over of the match. His first ball to me was a wide. The next ball I played watchfully. I scored a single off the third ball and then he bowled another wide to Sehwag, which also allowed us to go through for a single. It was his sixth ball that allowed me to go after him. It was short and wide. I sighted the ball early and within a fraction of a second had made up my mind to go over third man. It wasn’t exactly the upper cut but more of a hard slash over the third-man fielder that sailed over the boundary. Trying to compensate for the short ball, Shoaib bowled the next one on a length on the off stump and I shuffled across and flicked him behind square for four.

It was a dream start. We had shed our initial inhibition and had started to attack. Having already scored 10 off his last two balls, I was intent on playing the final ball of the over cautiously, so I just punched it back towards mid on. It was a defensive stroke, but the timing was such that it sped across the turf to the long-on boundary. We had scored 18 off the over.

Pakistan were obviously feeling the pressure when Waqar came on to bowl in the fourth over, giving Shoaib a break after one disastrous over. Sehwag launched Waqar’s first ball for six over third man and we attacked him straight away. We were now egging each other on and were speaking to each other loudly in Hindi, which the Pakistanis could understand, of course. Our body language had turned aggressive and when I finished off the Waqar over with another four we were firmly in control. We had not allowed the bowlers to settle down and had seized the advantage. It was the best early assault against Pakistan that I had been involved in and it could not have come at a more important time. We reached 50 in just five overs and the target of 273 was no longer the huge mountain it had seemed at the start of our innings.

As with most India–Pakistan matches, however, there had to be a shift in momentum and against the run of play Pakistan picked up two wickets in Waqar’s next over – first Sehwag and then Sourav with the very next ball. Pakistan were back in the match. Mohammad Kaif came in next and it was important for us to put together a partnership and also not to get bogged down. Kaif played well and ran hard between the wickets to make sure I had as much of the strike as possible. The run rate had not dipped and I reached my fifty with a scoring rate of over 150 for the innings.