Playing It My Way: My Autobiography (45 page)

We picked up four wickets on day four and had the whole of the fifth day to take the remaining six wickets to wrap up the series 2–0. Zaheer, Ishant and Munaf Patel were bowling extremely well for us, as they had right through the series. The plan was to bowl short and attack the shoulder/ribcage area in an attempt to rattle the opposition. It seemed to work and I could sense the discomfort in some of the New Zealand batsmen.

With the wind behind him, Ishant was unplayable at times. Munaf took on the challenging job of bowling into the wind and for those who are not aware of the difficulties involved, the wind at Wellington can reduce your pace by at least 10 kph. Batsmen have to be able to make subtle adjustments to adapt to conditions like these. One problem with looking into strong winds is that you can’t keep your eyes open for too long at a stretch. Also, when facing someone bowling with the wind, your bat speed has to be slightly faster than normal because the ball hurries on quicker than expected. On the other hand, a batsman can put pressure on someone bowling into the wind because the bat swing is naturally faster with the wind behind you.

On this occasion, our bowlers made sure the New Zealand batsmen were never at ease and despite another century from Ross Taylor in the second innings, we were always in control. Jesse Ryder, who had been their most successful batsman in the series, failed in both innings at Wellington, which definitely helped our chances. I was given the ball a little before lunch on day five and was pleased to get the crucial wicket of Brendon McCullum, caught at slip for 6. Then I could tell that James Franklin, the last recognized batsman, wasn’t picking my googlies and was trying to sweep every ball to negate the overspin. I asked Dhoni to take the fielder away from point and place two fielders at short square leg. This would stop Franklin from playing the sweep shot and would force him to cut. The plan worked and I had Franklin lbw soon after making the field change.

We would have won the match if Ishant had held on to a chance from Iain O’Brien in the deep. The spilled catch allowed New Zealand a lifeline before the heavens opened after lunch, bringing a premature end to the match. Close to two sessions of play were lost to rain and we missed out on a golden opportunity.

An incident from this New Zealand series gives an idea of how much difference local conditions can make to a team’s chances. It happened at Christchurch during the ODI series when Zaheer was bowling. He had bowled a good-length ball and the batsman’s attempted front-foot slog over midwicket turned into a top edge. Zaheer screamed out ‘MINE!’ and carefully positioned himself for the catch. To his dismay, the wind got hold of the ball and it landed at least fifteen feet away. Later we all joked with him, saying, ‘So the catch was
yours
, was it, Zak?’

Our rise up the ICC Test rankings had started in England back in 2007. Now, after the successful series in New Zealand, we had the opportunity to take the number-one position if we beat Sri Lanka at home in November–December 2009.

The series against Sri Lanka was also special for personal reasons, because I notched up twenty years in international cricket in November 2009. I celebrated the occasion by speaking to the media for more than seven hours, giving close to fifty one-on-one interviews. So much for people saying I did not talk to the media enough! Looking back at how uncomfortable I was at my first press conference in 1990, I had indeed come a long way.

I remember being confronted with a camera for the first time as an awkward teenager. In my early TV advertisements, I was not what you might call camera-friendly. I was self-conscious about using make-up and insisted on being natural, with nothing on my face and nothing done to my hair. It was only later that I realized that it was just a normal part of working with cameras. Later in my career, I really enjoyed shooting commercials and there were some incidents that I can never forget.

On one occasion I was at a shoot with one of India’s greatest cinema icons, Amitabh Bachchan, in the Rajasthan city of Jodhpur. While we were taking a break, I suddenly realized that Arjun, who was only a toddler then, had finished his meal and was happily wiping his hands on Amitabh Bachchan’s churidar (the lower garment we wear in India with a kurta). Anjali and I were both mortified, but he kindly kept telling us that it was perfectly all right and that a child of Arjun’s age hardly knew what he was doing. While Mr Bachchan was looking at the funnier side of the incident, as parents we were extremely embarrassed by it. I even said to him that ‘
Arjun jabh bada ho jayega to es incident ko yaad karke sharmaega
.’ (When Arjun grows up he will remember what he did and feel seriously embarrassed.) His conduct during this episode only added to my respect for the great man.

Another commercial I have fond memories of involved another Bollywood legend, Shahrukh Khan. Shahrukh and I were shooting for Pepsi at Lord’s on the eve of the 1999 World Cup and the plan was for Shahrukh to pose as me and open the refrigerator in the dressing room to take out a chilled Pepsi. That’s when I was supposed to confront him for impersonating me. I ended up adding my own ideas to the commercial and said we should not stop there, but I should take the Pepsi bottle from him and force him to go out and bat in my place as well. The director loved the idea and the script was changed on the day.

Before the first Test of the three-match series started in Ahmedabad on 16 November, Anjali had planned something special for me, to mark my twenty years in international cricket. As a surprise, she and a few of my closest friends hired a private jet and flew into Ahmedabad on the morning of the game. I was having breakfast with MS Dhoni and had my back to the restaurant door when I saw in Dhoni’s eyes that something was going on behind me. Even before I could turn to see what was happening, Anjali and the gang had reached me. It was totally unexpected and I was deeply touched by the gesture.

Halfway through the Test, we found ourselves in a spot of bother. Centuries from Dravid and Dhoni had helped us to a decent first-innings total of 426, but Sri Lanka had scored 760 runs in response, thanks to hundreds from Dilshan and Prasanna Jayawardene and a double hundred from Mahela Jayawardene. We now needed to bat for a day and a half to save the game. But our never-say-die spirit came to the fore again and we batted exceptionally well to draw the match, with the opener Gambhir setting the foundation with 114.

I also scored a hundred on the last day and it was not a century free of incidents. Once it was evident to the Sri Lankans that they could no longer win, they set ultra-defensive fields. At one point Kumar Sangakkara, the Sri Lankan skipper, asked if I really wanted to carry on because there was no longer a possibility of a result in the match. I said to him bluntly that a Test hundred was a Test hundred and I would have got there long before if he had set sporting fields. While I had no problem with him trying to make things difficult for me, there was no reason for me to call it off when there was time left in the game.

At this, Sangakkara set a 7–2 off-side field and must have asked his left-arm fast bowler Welegedara to bowl to me a couple of feet outside my off stump with the ball going further away. I felt the need to improvise and on one occasion moved almost two feet outside the off stump and flicked Welegedara to square leg for four to get into the nineties. When I eventually reached my century, I asked Sangakkara if he wanted to continue the game. I was happy to carry on batting, but then we both decided to call off the game.

There was a similar situation in the same series during the third ODI in Cuttack on 21 December 2009. Chasing the Sri Lankan total of 239, I was in the nineties and Dinesh Karthik was giving me very good support at the other end. With only a few runs needed to win, Sangakkara decided to place most of his fielders on the boundary when I was facing, while for Dinesh he would bring the field right in. To counter the ploy, Dinesh played a number of dot-balls before I intervened and asked him just to finish the match. The win, I said, was far more important than my hundred. In the end, I remained unbeaten on 96 as Dinesh hit the winning runs.

I’m also reminded of what the Sri Lankans did against Virender Sehwag on 16 August 2010 during a one-day international in Dambulla. With Viru on 99 and only one run needed, the off-spinner Suraj Randiv bowled a big no-ball and even though Viru hit him for six, the runs did not count because technically the match was over the moment the no-ball was bowled. Viru fell short of the hundred by one run and the incident created quite a storm in the media at the time.

After the hard-fought draw in the first Test, we routed the Sri Lankans in the next Test at Kanpur, which started on 24 November 2009. Our first three batsmen, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid, all got hundreds and the bowlers backed them up with some disciplined bowling, so that we won by an innings and 144 runs. The series had been set up beautifully for a grand finale at the CCI in Mumbai the following week.

At the CCI, Virender Sehwag produced one of the best Test innings I have seen. He played some breathtaking shots and scored 284 not out in a single day of cricket. He fell the next morning for 293, narrowly missing out on the third triple ton of his career. The pace at which he scored also allowed our bowlers plenty of time to bowl out the opposition. In that sort of form, he could demoralize any bowling attack in the world and in a way he helped change approaches to opening the batting in Test cricket. Zaheer did the rest of the job in style, picking up a five-for in the Sri Lankan second innings, and we won the match by an innings and 24 runs. It was a tremendous victory – and it meant that we were now officially the number-one Test team.

A more personal high point in this match was running out Angelo Mathews for 99 in the Sri Lankan first innings. He played the ball to fine leg and turned for a second run in a bid to get to his century. I managed to get to the ball quickly and sent in a flat powerful throw, which landed right on top of the stumps. All Dhoni had to do was knock off the bails. While celebrating the dismissal I joked with my team-mates that the old man could still field even after playing international cricket for twenty long years!

We had played terrific cricket as a team. Each and every player had chipped in and Gary and the support staff – Paddy Upton, our high-performance and mental-conditioning coach; Ramji Srinivasan, our fitness trainer; Nitin Patel, our physio; Ramesh Mane and Amit Shah, our masseurs; and Dhananjay, our computer analyst – had all played important roles in our rise to the top. For me, Test cricket is the format that matters the most and this was undoubtedly a high point in my career. The fact that it coincided with my twentieth anniversary in international cricket had made it even more special.

1st Test. Chennai. 11–15 December 2008

England 316 (AJ Strauss 123, MJ Prior 53*, AN Cook 52; H Singh 3–96, A Mishra 3–99) and 311–9 dec (AJ Strauss 108, PD Collingwood 108; Z Khan 3–40, I Sharma 3–57)

India 241 (MS Dhoni 53, H Singh 40,
SR Tendulkar 37
; A Flintoff 3–49, MS Panesar 3–65) and 387–4 (
SR Tendulkar 103*
, Y Singh 85, V Sehwag 83, G Gambhir 66)

India won by 6 wickets

2nd Test. Mohali. 19–23 December 2008

India 453 (G Gambhir 179, R Dravid 136,
SR Tendulkar 11
; A Flintoff 3–54, GP Swann 3–122) and 251–7 dec (G Gambhir 97, Y Singh 86,
SR Tendulkar 5
)

England 302 (KP Pietersen 144, A Flintoff 62, AN Cook 50; H Singh 4–68, Z Khan 3–76) and 64–1

Match drawn

India won the series 1–0

1st Test. Hamilton. 18–21 March 2009

New Zealand 279 (DL Vettori 118, JD Ryder 102; I Sharma 4–73, MM Patel 3–60) and 279 (BB McCullum 84, DR Flynn 67, MJ Guptill 48; H Singh 6–63)

India 520 (
SR Tendulkar 160
, G Gambhir 72, R Dravid 66, Z Khan 51*; CS Martin 3–98, IE O’Brien 3–103) and 39–0

India won by 10 wickets

2nd Test. Napier. 26–30 March 2009

New Zealand 619–9 dec (JD Ryder 201, LRPL Taylor 151, BB McCullum 115, DL Vettori 55, JEC Franklin 52; I Sharma 3–95, Z Khan 3–129)

India 305 (R Dravid 83, VVS Laxman 76,
SR Tendulkar 49
; CS Martin 3–89) and 476–4 (f/o) (G Gambhir 137, VVS Laxman 124*,
SR Tendulkar 64
, R Dravid 62, Y Singh 54*)

Match drawn

3rd Test. Wellington. 3–7 April 2009

India 379 (
SR Tendulkar 62
, H Singh 60, MS Dhoni 52; CS Martin 4–98) and 434–7 dec (G Gambhir 167, VVS Laxman 61, R Dravid 60, MS Dhoni 56*,
SR Tendulkar 9
; CS Martin 3–70)

New Zealand 197 (LRPL Taylor 42; Z Khan 5–65, H Singh 3–43) and 281–8 (LRPL Taylor 107, MJ Guptil 49, JEC Franklin 49; H Singh 4–59,
SR Tendulkar 2–45
, Z Khan 2–57)

Match drawn

India won the series 1–0

1st Test. Ahmedabad. 16–20 November 2009

India 426 (R Dravid 177, MS Dhoni 110, Y Singh 68,
SR Tendulkar 4
; UWMBCA Welegedara 4–87, M Muralitharan 3–97) and 412–4 (G Gambhir 114,
SR Tendulkar 100*
, V Sehwag 51, VVS Laxman 51*)

Sri Lanka 760–7 dec (DPMD Jayawardene 275, HAPW Jayawardene 154*, TM Dilshan 112)

Match drawn

2nd Test. Kanpur. 24–27 November 2009

India 642 (G Gambhir 167, R Dravid 144, V Sehwag 131, Y Singh 67, VVS Laxman 63,
SR Tendulkar 40
; HMRKB Herath 5–121)

Sri Lanka 229 (DPMD Jayawardene 47, KC Sangakkara 44; S Sreesanth 5–75) and 269 (f/o) (TT Samaraweera 78*; H Singh 3–98, PP Ojha 2–36)

India won by an innings and 144 runs