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Sourav Ganguly, who took over the captaincy in 2000 when he was caught in a gambling scandal, gave opportunities to many quality players from Sehwag to Dhoni and turned India into a winning team in the next few years through his aggressive captaincy. Under his leadership, India did not win the World Cup but learned the trick of consistently winning overseas. Among the historic victories recorded by India under his leadership was the NatWest Tripartite Trophy win in England in 2002.
England defeated Sri Lanka in the 3-team series and India clashed in the final at the famous Lord’s Stadium in London. While chasing the target of 326 runs set by England, who batted first, captain Ganguly gave an impressive start, but India stumbled at 146/5 as key players like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid were out for few runs.
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Kaip – Yuvraj:
Chasing 300+ runs successfully during that period was seen as difficult and everyone thought India’s defeat was certain as they lost wickets early on. But Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif, who came out as fearless calves in the middle order and did not fear the pressure, put a mega partnership of 146 runs and suffocated England and brought India to victory.
In it, Mohammad Kaif played the best innings of his life as India suffered a setback due to the dismissal of Yuvraj Singh at the crucial time and scored 87* (75) to lead India to a thrilling 2-wicket win. And no one can forget the mass response to Sourav Ganguly’s shirtless twirl on the balcony of Lord’s Stadium, the mecca of cricket, on home soil for Flintoff, who had humiliated Flintoff by taking off his shirt during a match win in Mumbai the previous month.
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Meals are not justified:
Mohammad Kaif, who won the man of the match award, said that many players forgot to eat lunch due to the excitement of the match which has so many historical backgrounds. Here’s what he said in a recent interview about it.
“We were very nervous. And our bowlers were very disappointed as they conceded 325 runs in that period. I still remember the look on John Wright’s (coach’s) face then. He said nothing in anger. But his body language showed that he was not in good spirits. He was very restless in controlling his anger and expressing disappointment.”
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“So we stayed away without talking to him. In the frenzy of the time, none of us spoke to each other very often. And some did not even go for lunch. 15 minutes before the chase of that match Dada Ganguly called us and said, “They beat us, so we will beat them”.
“And he reminded us that we beat England in the league round of that series. And our plan that day was to somehow score 90 runs in the first 15 overs. Doing that helped us a lot in the end. It was only after Yuvraj Singh and I formed a partnership then that the people in the dressing room started to believe that we could win.”
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“Sachin Tendulkar asked everyone not to move out of the dressing room, especially when we were playing well. Because before that, Sachin asked everyone to follow the blind belief of a fan that if they don’t move from their seat, they will win.”
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