Playing It My Way: My Autobiography (8 page)

The second innings was an improvement in that I managed to stay at the wicket for close to an hour, playing forty-four balls. My 24 runs were enough to give me confidence that I was capable of holding my own in strange conditions. Although I had fallen to John Bracewell, trying to cut a ball close to my body, I had successfully negotiated Richard Hadlee, which I counted as an achievement. Hadlee’s first two deliveries to me were bouncers, but each was profoundly different from the other. The first was an outswinging bouncer that went away after pitching; the second came in from the same spot and I had to keep my eye on the ball till the last moment to get my head out of the way. Such was the ability of the man that you had to be at your best at all times to keep him at bay.

New Zealand won the first Test by ten wickets and the second Test match at Napier started only a few days later, on 9 February. We decided to bat first after winning the toss but the first day was completely washed out by rain. The match finally started on the second day and I was unbeaten on 80 by the end of the third day’s play. The ball was doing a little and batting wasn’t particularly easy, but not once did I try to dominate the bowling the way I had in domestic cricket.

When I went in to bat on the fourth morning the possibility of a hundred was on my mind. I was just 20 runs short and was determined to take my opportunity. I started well and hit the very first Danny Morrison delivery for four. For the rest of the over he bowled short and I was content to leave everything. In his next over, I again hit a boundary off the first ball. The next was pitched up and I had already made up my mind to go for a big drive but the drive was uppish and I was caught by the New Zealand captain John Wright at mid off for 88.

I was heartbroken. As I walked back to the pavilion I couldn’t control my tears. Why on earth did I play that shot when I was just twelve runs short? By the time I reached the boundary rope, tears were flowing down my cheeks. I’m glad there weren’t too many cameras then, as these days a cameraman would definitely have picked up an embarrassing shot of me in tears. On reaching the dressing room, I went straight to the bathroom and cried for a good few minutes. Missing out on what should have been my first Test hundred was just too painful. It was only later that I was told I would have been the youngest Test centurion ever. It was a missed opportunity and I remember telling John Wright, after he took over as coach of India in 2005, that he really shouldn’t have taken that catch!

We eventually lost the three-Test match series 0–1 and then played the Rothmans Cup one-day tri-series, with Australia as the third team. As in the first Test, I was out for a duck in the first ODI against New Zealand at Dunedin on 1 March, caught and bowled by Shane Thomson, who was bowling medium pace. The only difference was that this time I had lasted one more ball. In the end, we lost the game by 108 runs.

I made a better fist of it in my next match, on 6 March 1990, an important one in the context of the tournament. We had lost to Australia in the second game and now needed to beat New Zealand to stay in contention for the final. I made 36 runs off thirty-nine balls, in the process attacking their seam bowlers for the first time and hitting them for quite a few boundaries. We won the game by one run, with Martin Snedden run out and Richard Hadlee bowled in the final over by Kapil Dev, who was declared Man of the Match for his all-round performance. For the first time my innings had been of use to the team in an official ODI. I couldn’t do much celebrating, though, because I damaged my right quadriceps during the game and had to be carried off the field. I couldn’t walk at all by the evening and was on crutches for the next few days. It was the first serious injury of my career and my tournament was over.

While we were in New Zealand, Asha Bhosle, one of the all-time great Indian singers, happened to be performing in Wellington and the team decided to go to her concert. It was the first time I had seen her live and I just loved the experience. Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar, another of India’s finest singers, are still two of my favourites and to see them perform is always very special.

On my return to India, my father told me that I had to hone my God-given cricketing ability. He was right. It was time for more hard work to master the skills needed to face the fast swinging ball and I was determined to put in the hours in the nets.

After the New Zealand series, India travelled to England for what was our most important assignment of the year. India had won a Test series in England in 1986 and we were all looking forward to repeating the feat. We had a training camp in Bangalore just before the series and Bishan Bedi continued with his policy of making us run miles every day. We had to jog in a line at Cubbon Park, opposite the Chinnaswamy Stadium, and the last man in the line had to sprint to the front. The same drill was followed for all the players and the exhausting routine finally resulted in Manoj Prabhakar jokingly suggesting that he was so fast now he would reach the batsman before his delivery did.

I had been to England twice before, in 1987–88 and 1988–89, as part of the Star Cricket Club, the team of Kailash Gattani (a former fast bowler who played first-class cricket for Rajasthan in Indian domestic cricket). In the first instance, I was sponsored by the Kolkata-based Young Cricketers Organization, who contributed my airfare. Among other things, I remember the tour for the food we ate. We stayed in school and college dormitories and had breakfast in their dining halls. For the first time in my life I was served cold meat for breakfast. That meat could be eaten cold was a revelation to me!

I was also amazed to see so many different types of cars. I have always had an interest in cars, though we didn’t own one at the time. Kailash Gattani had hired a luxury sedan and I was keen to find out as much as I could about the engineering details of these fascinating machines. Besides playing cricket, these were things that kept me occupied and I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity of exploring a foreign country. Visiting Lord’s, the mecca of world cricket, was a dream come true, and it all added to my ambition to play at such venues as a member of the Indian cricket team.

In 1990, the tour started with a few first-class fixtures, which were followed by two one-day internationals. While I was in good form at the start of the tour and scored runs in the first-class games, I didn’t do so well in the first ODI at Leeds on 18 July, making only 19. Happily, it didn’t matter because the team won – thanks to the batting of Manjrekar and Azharuddin – and we had a chance of victory in the series if we won the next game at Nottingham on the 20th.

In the second match England produced a better performance, batting first, with Robin Smith, the South African-born middle-order batsman, contributing 103 to their total of 281. We needed to bat really well to close out the series. When I went in to bat at number six we needed a further 145 off twenty overs. In those days, that was considered a stiff target. I scored a quick 31 off twenty-six balls and was dismissed with the score on 249, with 33 still needed to win, but we won the match and the series 2–0, with Azhar seeing us home with an unbeaten 63. It was a perfect start to the tour, giving us some welcome confidence going into the Test series.

The first Test at Lord’s will always be remembered for Graham Gooch’s heroics with the bat. After being dropped on 33, he went on to make a triple hundred. He was eventually out for 333 and then produced another century in the second innings. For India, the highlights were Azhar’s hundred and Kapil Dev hitting four successive sixes off Eddie Hemmings, the off-spinner, to save the follow-on.

My only significant contribution in the match was a catch off leg-spinner Narendra Hirwani’s bowling to dismiss England’s batting mainstay Allan Lamb in the second innings. It remains the most memorable catch of my career. Hirwani had beaten Lamb in the flight as he stepped out to hit straight down the ground. Despite failing to get to the pitch of the ball, Lamb went through with the shot and the ball went high into the air, looking as if it was going to land some 25 yards behind the bowler.

As soon as Lamb hit the shot, I started sprinting from my position at long off. There was very little chance that I would make it, because I had been positioned a few yards wide of the conventional long-off position. It was only during the last few steps that I realized I had an outside chance. I had covered a distance of more than 25 yards and was still short. I could dive forward, but I knew I would not have enough control to catch the ball. The other option was to carry on sprinting and try somehow to get a hand to the ball, which was dying on me. I chose the second option and to my surprise felt the ball land in my fully outstretched right hand at knee height.

Having completed the catch, I threw the ball up in the air in sheer ecstasy. My team-mates were naturally delighted. Hirwani rushed to congratulate me and I felt thrilled at having pulled it off. The crowd appreciated the athletic effort and I vividly remember the warm applause as I walked back to my fielding position. The key to taking catches like these, it seems to me, is not to be afraid of taking the initiative and deciding quickly, while always keeping an eye on the trajectory of the ball.

We lost the Lord’s Test by the huge margin of 247 runs and needed to tighten our game before the second Test at Old Trafford a week later to remain alive in the series.

In the first innings at Old Trafford, England once again put together a total of more than 500, with centuries from Gooch and Mike Atherton, and we simply had to get as close to their score as possible in our reply. We were due to bat fourth in the match and any total in excess of 250 would be difficult to chase down on a wearing pitch. Azhar made another hundred and almost everyone in the top order contributed to our first-innings effort. Had the lower middle order scored runs, we may have got closer to the English total and even managed a first-innings lead. It might also have given me an opportunity to go for my maiden hundred. But they got out in quick succession and I ran out of partners. I went in to bat at number six with the team score on 246 and was last man out for 68, trying to play a big shot off Eddie Hemmings. As Hirwani would I am sure agree, he was not the best number eleven in the world. I felt I had to go for my shots sooner rather than later and I holed out to Chris Lewis at deep midwicket as a result.

Hirwani was always fun to bat with and when he came in he said to me at the wicket that he would be fine as long as the balls were pitched up. He said he had a problem facing bouncers and I assured him that the English bowlers would not bowl bouncers at him because he wasn’t a recognized batsman. He managed to bat on for a while and gradually gained in confidence. So much so that he suddenly charged out to Chris Lewis to give the ball a real whack. Chris’s expression said it all. He did not take kindly to a number-eleven batsman giving him the charge. He was fuming as he walked back to his bowling mark and a bouncer was now inevitable. However, in charging out Hirwani had somehow broken his bat and it took a bit of time to get a replacement from the dressing room. Luckily, the few minutes that were lost in the bat change had a calming effect on Chris Lewis and Hirwani survived his innings unscathed.

We were finally all out for 432, conceding an 87-run first-innings lead. It was evident that England would want to score quickly and set us a target. Allan Lamb made a hundred in the England second innings and on the final day they declared on 320–4, leaving us ninety-two overs to bat out. The English attack, consisting of Angus Fraser, Chris Lewis, Devon Malcolm and Eddie Hemmings, had some variety, and while the fast bowlers used the cloud cover to good effect, Hemmings extracted considerable purchase from the fifth-day track. With all the bowlers performing at their best, we were soon reduced to 109–4. Then Azhar fell with the score on 127 and Kapil Dev was yorked by Eddie Hemmings, leaving us at a perilous 183–6.

When Manoj Prabhakar joined me in the middle we badly needed a partnership to save the game. I had been lucky at the start of my innings, with Eddie Hemmings dropping me when I had tried to play an on drive. The ball had hit the outside part of my bat and spooned back to Hemmings, who failed to hold on to it. I learnt my lesson and decided not to play any more uppish strokes. At the same time I was determined to play some shots and not go into my shell. Getting ultra-defensive would allow the English bowlers to put more and more fielders round the bat, and by trying to score I would be able to keep the field spread out. Every time I got a chance to score runs, I did so. Most of my scoring strokes were in the nature of punches played with minimum risk. The balance between aggression and caution was crucial and I was trying to focus on each and every ball. My fifty came up but it did not excite me. The match was far from saved and that was the goal.

At the other end, Manoj Prabhakar was playing well and after a while it was clear we had succeeded in frustrating the English bowlers. The first task had been accomplished. When trying to save a match, the important thing is to set small targets. These can be as little as batting the next five overs, or the next hour, or even a session. If a wicket doesn’t fall for close to a session, the opposition, however much they are in control, are bound to feel pressure. Time was gradually running out for England and restlessness was creeping in.

When I passed 90 runs, it was obvious that the thought of scoring a hundred would start to affect me. After all, it would be my first international century and the crowd had already started expecting it from me. I reminded myself of what had happened in New Zealand and was conscious not to repeat the same mistake. There was still some time left in the day’s play and England could press for victory if I got out.

In the mid-nineties I got a lucky reprieve against Angus Fraser. He bowled me a bouncer and I ducked under it with my bat held above my head like a periscope. The ball hit the back of the bat and went along the ground to fine leg. It could have gone straight into the hands of any of the close-in fielders or to the wicketkeeper. But it didn’t. I was glad and thanked God for the reprieve.