Playing It My Way: My Autobiography (40 page)

India won by 7 wickets

3rd Test. The Oval. 9–13 August 2007

India 664 (A Kumble 110*, MS Dhoni 92, KD Karthik 91,
SR Tendulkar 82
, R Dravid 55, VVS Laxman 51; JM Anderson 4–182) and 180–6 dec (SC Ganguly 57,
SR Tendulkar 1
; PD Collingwood 2–24, JM Anderson 2–34, CT Tremlett 2–58)

England 345 (IR Bell 63, PD Collingwood 62, AN Cook 61; Z Khan 3–32, A Kumble 3–94,
SR Tendulkar 1–26
) and 369–6 (KP Pietersen 101, IR Bell 67; S Sreesanth 3–53)

Match drawn

India won the series 1–0

1st Test. Melbourne. 26–29 December 2007

Australia 343 (ML Hayden 124, PA Jaques 66; A Kumble 5–84, Z Khan 4–94) and 351–7 dec (MJ Clarke 73, PA Jaques 51; H Singh 3–101).

India 196 (
SR Tendulkar 62
, SC Ganguly 43; SR Clark 4–28, B Lee 4–46) and 161 (VVS Laxman 42, SC Ganguly 40,
SR Tendulkar 15
; MG Johnson 3–21, B Lee 2–43, GB Hogg 2–51)

Australia won by 337 runs

2nd Test. Sydney. 2–6 January 2008

Australia 463 (A Symonds 162*, GB Hogg 79, B Lee 59, RT Ponting 55; A Kumble 4–106, RP Singh 4–124) and 401–7 dec (MEK Hussey 145*, ML Hayden 123, A Symonds 61; A Kumble 4–148)

India 532 (
SR Tendulkar 154*
, VVS Laxman 109, SC Ganguly 67, H Singh 63, R Dravid 53; B Lee 5–119) and 210 (SC Ganguly 51, A Kumble 45*,
SR Tendulkar 12
; MJ Clarke 3–5, A Symonds 3–51)

Australia won by 122 runs

3rd Test. Perth. 16–19 January 2008

India 330 (R Dravid 93,
SR Tendulkar 71
; MG Johnson 4–86, B Lee 3–71) and 294 (VVS Laxman 79, IK Pathan 46,
SR Tendulkar 13
; SR Clark 4–61, B Lee 3–54)

Australia 212 (A Symonds 66, AC Gilchrist 55; RP Singh 4–68, I Sharma 2–34, A Kumble 2–42) and 340 (MJ Clarke 81, MG Johnson 50*, MEK Hussey 46; IK Pathan 3–54, V Sehwag 2–24)

India won by 72 runs

4th Test. Adelaide. 24–28 January 2008

India 526 (
SR Tendulkar 153
, A Kumble 87, V Sehwag 63, H Singh 63, VVS Laxman 51; MG Johnson 4–126, B Lee 3–101) and 269–7 dec (V Sehwag 151,
SR Tendulkar 13
; MG Johnson 2–33, B Lee 2–74)

Australia 563 (RT Ponting 140, MJ Clarke 118, ML Hayden 103, PA Jaques 60; IK Pathan 3–112, I Sharma 3–115, V Sehwag 2–51)

Match drawn

Australia won the series 2–1

The 2008 one-day tri-series in Australia with Sri Lanka as the third team was a hard-fought competition. A lot of the tension from the controversial Test series that preceded it was carried into the limited-overs arena and the Indian team under new captain MS Dhoni were determined to return to India with the Commonwealth Bank trophy.

The pitch at the MCG on 10 February was one of the fastest I’ve played on. We fielded first and Dhoni was standing way back and still had to catch most balls at chest height. I was standing at slip, which was at the edge of the thirty-yard circle, an indication of the pace and bounce of the pitch. I remember mentioning to Dhoni, after an outside edge off Matthew Hayden’s bat flew past me, that the pitch was going to favour the fast bowlers throughout the match and no chase was going to be easy.

Our bowlers used the conditions well and dismissed Australia for only 159. Ishant bowled beautifully again to pick up 4–38 and Sreesanth also did well, taking 3–31. At the break our dressing room was buoyant, though we knew that their fast bowlers would enjoy the conditions just as much. Sure enough, in the third over of the innings Lee bowled a fast short ball that flew off the shoulder of my bat over slip towards third man. Just as I was completing the single, Lee walked up to me and casually said with a smile that he was feeling very good and was going to bowl really fast at me. Lee has always been a good friend and while it wasn’t exactly sledging, it was enough to fire me up. As he walked past I just muttered to myself that, come what may, I was going to take him on. It turned out to be one of our most memorable contests.

My chance came in the fifth over. Sehwag had just been dismissed at the other end, lbw to left-arm seamer Nathan Bracken for 11, and Lee was steaming in. His second ball was slightly wide but I still decided to go for a drive through cover. I connected moderately well and the ball raced to the fence. Lee just gave me another smile and walked back to his mark. I thought I knew what he would try next. He ran in fast and, as anticipated, bowled a fuller-length ball. I came down hard at it and hit it straight back at him. It must have been one of the most powerful shots I have hit in my life. Lee didn’t have a hope of bending down to stop the ball. In fact, the ball had reached the boundary by the time he finished his follow-through.

By now Lee was even more pumped up and the next ball was a 151 kph delivery, which I defended off the back foot. I was determined to keep attacking and I got another opportunity off the fifth ball of the over. It was full and fast and again I hit it back past Lee for four. While the first straight drive had gone to the left of the bowler, this one went to his right. Those two drives gave me a lot of confidence and I went on to make 44. When I got out in the twenty-sixth over we needed 64 runs and Rohit Sharma and Dhoni played well to finish off the job.

Immediately after the match, I started to feel some soreness in my adductors, the muscles in the groin, and informed John Gloster about the problem. We took remedial steps but the pain refused to go away and I was still feeling it when we played our last pool match against Sri Lanka on 26 February in Hobart. It was a game we had to win to qualify for the three-match final against Australia. Sri Lanka scored 179, with Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar both taking four wickets, and when our innings started I managed to connect well from the off and went on to make 63 as we knocked off the runs in thirty-three overs. It felt good to spend time out in the middle again after several low scores and I headed to Sydney for the first final relieved at having scored some runs.

While I was looking forward to the finals, I was conscious that the pain in my adductors was getting worse after every practice session. I was having problems with running, twisting and even bending down to pick up a ball. It reached a stage where in fielding practice I had to just stand at the stumps while my team-mates threw the ball in. With the final just a day away, painkillers were the only remedy.

Before the finals, the atmosphere got a little heated again when Ricky Ponting declared that Australia would have to play only the first two of the three finals, as that was all it would take to send India packing. His comments only added to our determination.

Australia batted first at the SCG after winning the toss. It’s usually a sensible ploy to bat first in a big final, because even a mediocre score can be made to look good in a must-win situation. Australia made 239 on the day, with Matthew Hayden contributing 82, and we didn’t think it was a bad total in good bowling conditions.

Robin Uthappa was opening the batting with me and our first task was to see off the new ball. We knew that if the team batted our full fifty overs, we should win the match, and I advised Robin to be patient and not to be aggressive early in the innings. Being a naturally attacking batsman, Robin was itching to play his shots and at one point I had to get a little angry with him, telling him not to do anything rash. We managed not to lose a wicket until the eleventh over, when Robin played his first big pull shot to deep square leg, where Mike Hussey caught the ball low down. Robin might have scored only 17, but he had helped see off the new ball and we had put together a 50-run first-wicket partnership.

I sensed that the match would be ours if we kept our nerve. Unfortunately for us, we lost Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj within a few overs and needed another partnership to rebuild the innings. Rohit Sharma had come out to bat and I asked him to play straight and not try any fancy shots early on. He batted brilliantly and soon we were in a position to grind down the opposition. Rohit finally got out to the all-rounder James Hopes for 66, just after I had reached my century.

Dhoni came out next and we knocked off the 30 runs needed to finish the match quite easily in the end. The only scare was a beamer from Brett Lee that hit me on the side of my helmet grille and the top of my left shoulder. The ball had slipped out of his hand and could very easily have injured me. I felt a little dizzy and jokingly suggested to Lee that he would have to answer to my son Arjun when he next went to Mumbai. Lee knew Arjun well and had spent some time with my family when we had filmed a
Boost
commercial together. He apologized immediately and the matter was put to rest there and then. It was an accident, of course, but the shoulder felt sore and the area between shoulder and elbow turned black.

It was a very satisfying feeling to bat through the innings. It was a big match but we decided not to celebrate too much because the second final in Brisbane was only a day away and we knew it was going to be tough because of the high humidity.

I could not sleep a wink that night and ached all over. The pain in my groin had increased and I was starting to get scared. The next morning I could barely walk and it was an ordeal boarding the early-morning flight. In Brisbane I was given a long massage as soon as we reached the hotel. Seeing my condition, Dhoni suggested that maybe I should miss the second final and play in the third if needed. I said to him that ‘
Sher jab gira hua hota hai use tabhi mar do
’ (When a tiger is down and out, just finish it off. Don’t give it a second chance.) He agreed with me that it would be better to close out the competition in Brisbane if we could.

When we arrived at the Gabba we found that there was a lot of moisture in the pitch. It was bound to be difficult for batting early on and the obvious plan was to field first if we won the toss – but I urged Dhoni not to do so. I reckoned that the Australians might well want to bat first, preferring to bat without the pressure of chasing a target. I thought it would be better if we set a target, even if it meant struggling through the initial period of dampness on the wicket.

Dhoni agreed and we batted first. Again, I told Robin Uthappa in no uncertain terms not to risk a single expansive shot till we had played out the first ten overs. In those conditions not losing wickets was far more important than trying to score runs. Robin successfully held back and we survived the first twenty overs intact, giving us a solid foundation to launch an assault. We then scored at almost six runs an over and ended up with 258, a reasonable score to defend in the circumstances.

I was pleased to score 91, but by the end of the innings I also knew that my body was in bad shape and if we weren’t able to win in Brisbane I would be in no condition to play the third final. In fact, I was forced to leave the field in the fourth over of the Australia innings, when Dhoni dived to catch Hayden off Sreesanth and the ball ricocheted and hit me exactly where I had been hit by the Lee beamer.

Meanwhile our opening bowler Praveen Kumar produced a great spell and picked up three crucial Australian wickets. Hayden and Symonds then put together a big partnership and the stage was set for Bhajji to have the final word on Australian soil. First he ran Hayden out, following a misunderstanding with Symonds, and then just two balls later Symonds missed a ball that turned a long way and was trapped lbw. Unsurprisingly, Bhajji enjoyed his wicket more than any other.

The match wasn’t over yet, however, with James Hopes playing some aggressive strokes. In the end, Hopes was out last, for 63, but by picking up wickets regularly at the other end we had ensured that he was constantly under pressure. Nevertheless, the match was closer than expected and when the final wicket fell, Australia were only ten runs away from winning the game.

It was a great feeling to win, and seeing the tricolour being waved all over the Gabba was a terrific sight. We had beaten Australia in Australia and were also delighted to have proved Ricky Ponting right. He did not have to play a third final, just as he had predicted.

My physical condition was deteriorating by the day. It didn’t help that the problem still hadn’t been diagnosed properly and I didn’t know exactly what I was suffering from. In any case, there wasn’t much time to do anything about it as the first of three home Tests against South Africa was due to start at Chennai a couple of weeks later, on 26 March 2008.

After getting as much rest as I could, I went to Chennai, and in the evening before the game had three injections in my groin. The doctors sounded confident that they would enable me to play the next day. When I got up the following morning the pain was substantially reduced, but John Gloster and I decided I should undertake a fitness test. I found I was able to run around during practice and also played our customary game of football without feeling too much discomfort. John declared me fit to play.

It was unlucky for me that South Africa won the toss and then batted for two long days as they compiled 540, with Amla making 159. Fielding in the heat quickly brought back the pain and when I finally batted on the fourth day I was so stiff and sore that I got out without scoring to Makhaya Ntini, caught by Kallis at second slip. At the end of the match, which was a high-scoring draw, I told Anil Kumble and John Gloster that there was no point in pushing my body any further.

I flew back to Mumbai and embarked on a process of rehabilitation under Nitin Patel, the physio of the Mumbai Indians, the IPL team of which I had been made captain. The first season of the IPL was just round the corner and my initial aim was to get fit for the first match. Despite all my efforts, however, I was only able to play the last seven matches, and even then I was not 100 per cent fit.