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After relegation last season, Saurashtra have come a long way in the 2015-16 Ranji Trophy season. But coach Sitanshu Kotak does not want his team to rest on its laurels

Shashank Kishore in Pune28-Feb-2016In September, Sitanshu Kotak called up Ravindra Jadeja. ” (“What plans?”),” he asked. ” (To help Saurashtra win matches, of course”) came the reply. Jadeja had just been left out of India’s squad across formats, and Axar Patel’s creditable show meant there was no guarantee of an immediate return. A comeback or the itch to prove a point, Kotak says, was far from Jadeja’s mind, but the prospect of being able to play matches immediately had him excited.A month later, on pitches tailored to suit Saurashtra’s strength, in their backyard in Rajkot, Jadeja picked up a mind-boggling six consecutive five-fors, and 37 wickets in three Ranji games. He backed that up with knocks of 91 and 58 in two of those games as Saurashtra opened up a massive lead in Group C. It was the start of their journey from a group that is often considered “weak”. That they came through unscathed till the end, blasting their way into the final, was as much due to the confidence they derived from those early wins as it was to their plan of empowering a young group of players.For Kotak, it was a sense of déjà vu after he missed the chance of lifting the Ranji Trophy as a player in similar circumstances three years ago, when his team had lost to the same opponents. But Saurashtra’s improvement this season – played for large parts without Jadeja and Cheteshwar Pujara, their two talismanic cricketers – was the most heartening sign for Kotak, even though the regret of folding cheaply without a fight at the final hurdle left him gutted.”In my 21 years as a player, I hadn’t seen relegation, so to be relegated as a coach in my first season last year was disheartening. This is as bad as I’ve felt since then, but these things happen,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “Losses aside, the biggest lesson this season has taught us is that we need to be a better green-track team. It’s not enough to score runs on flat tracks and play on turners.”The mention of turners is quite interesting, for it was a strategy that was well thought out. “The plan was simple,” he starts. “We didn’t want to be Himachal [Pradesh], who have been there and thereabouts. We wanted to push for results. Even if it meant we lose two here and there, so be it. We had to play to our strengths initially, just to get out of the rut we had found ourselves in. After getting relegated to Group C, the players were hurt. They finally realised something was wrong, so we thought, ‘Why not play to our advantage and get a head start – surely away, we may have to face conditions where we don’t thrive.'”As it turned out, the ploy to prepare turners helped Jadeja pitch for a comeback, which was a roaring success as, along with R Ashwin, he dismantled South Africa in the Tests. For Saurashtra, though, it was back to the drawing board. Their winning streak came to a halt as soon as Jadeja left for the Tests, as they drew against Goa and Himachal, and soon lost to Kerala. “That was an eye-opener; that is when we felt how weak our batting was, and we needed to tighten our game,” Kotak says. “We needed a mainstay. We’ve been used to not having Pujara around, but not too many raised their hands in the time he wasn’t available.”Sheldon Jackson has been doing well, has played India A too, but we needed someone in the top three. That was a challenge for us, because on seaming tracks, if we lost the toss, we would often fall behind. We could either change personnel or stick to the same set of guys who had shown the spark. We thought, this season wasn’t the best to change too many things because, having made the start, we had to finish it well. In some ways, the absence of a proper club structure in Rajkot means most of the players play outside, while young players who can’t do that get lost. So that needs to improve.”Ravindra Jadeja helped Saurashtra start their season with four consecutive wins•BCCIWhile the decision to stick with the batting seemed to work, the bowlers, particularly the pacers, who had little role to play on raging turners, were a little rusty. Jaydev Unadkat, who missed a good part of last season because of injury, was fit and firing. Hardik Rathod, who had played for Railways last season, returned to his home state in search of opportunities, as did Deepak Punia, the pacer, who previously represented Services. “After we finished our home games, both of them (Rathod and Punia) were key to our plans,” Kotak says. “We worked on their skills right through the season, got them to bowl long spells in the nets. But we made it clear that while a place in the team was no guarantee, at least we would try and look after them better.”As he speaks, it seems that Kotak, the coach, is more flamboyant than Kotak, the batsman, a stonewaller. He says the biggest challenge as coach was to ensure those he played with were involved in planning, even though he consciously made an effort to maintain a distance and a sense of perspective.”That is where I got guys like Jadeja and Pujara to talk to the boys,” he says. “My cricket was limited, so from a coach’s point of view, I had to make them feel comfortable, give them opportunities. These two, having played for India, were a major part of my plan because they have interacted with modern-day coaches and been exposed to the best training methods. You can be a Level-1 or Level-3 coach, but these are things no coaching degree will teach you. My challenge was to bring out the best in them without altering their game. Players react differently in good form, while the same advice when they are in bad form may invite a different discussion. So finding that balance was my challenge, but they were all motivated. The rebuilding phase has to be completed now.”With the side having bounced back to reach the final after having been relegated, Kotak doesn’t mince words when he says individuals need to be self-motivated if they are to consistently challenge top teams. “It’s not criticism, but the truth is, a lot of players get comfortable,” he says. “There has to be a purpose of playing first-class cricket. Either you want to play for India or contribute to the state team because you love the game. There is at times a mentality of not wanting to let go. You should be helping a cause, two or three fifties in a season and you can’t be happy.”A look at Saurashtra’s batting charts this season further drives home the point Kotak is trying to make. The team scored a combined tally of five hundreds, with the highest number of fifties scored by a player being three, by Jadeja and Avi Barot. That the top run-scorer for Saurashtra was Jackson with 538 runs – in comparison Mumbai’s top-scorer Shreyas Iyer had 1321 runs – further reinforces Kotak’s point. Of course it didn’t help that their captain Jaydev Shah, who has been in charge for a record 93 games out of the 105 he has played in, didn’t lead by example, managing a modest 294 runs from 11 matches.Saurashtra have faltered in the past, not having built on their gains from 2012-13. For a while now, their journey has been about taking one step forward, only to fall two steps back. This time around, there is another opportunity to build on the gains made by a young group of players. One way of doing so could be to have a younger captain take charge of the group, which means there could be a slot that could be filled by a promising batsman who is given a longer rope. How they decide to move forward from here could determine if Kotak manages to groom a set of players who go on to become ‘ (long-haul racehorses).

Australian cricket has unearthed its first carrom-ball spinner, a teenager inspired by watching clips of Sunil Narine and R Ashwin in the IPL

Daniel Brettig15-Apr-2016Next summer will mark ten years since Shane Warne retired from Test matches, a decade in which his giant shadow was cast over all Australian spin bowlers who followed him. Just this week another chapter of discontent unfolded, as Cameron Boyce chose to leave Queensland for Tasmania in search of the opportunities seldom found by those who carried on in their forebear’s 700-wicket wake.Time changes all things, of course, and under the flight path of Boyce’s journey from Brisbane to Hobart a rather different slow-bowling emergence has taken place in Sydney. Lacking the services of Steve O’Keefe due to injury, New South Wales’ selectors chose to thrust the 17-year-old offspinner Arjun Nair into their Sheffield Shield side for the final two rounds.Nominally an offspinner, he boasts five variations and is presently working on a sixth. Rather than being moved to try spin by Warne’s exploits, Nair first experimented with different ways of breaking the ball after watching IPL spells by Sunil Narine and R Ashwin on YouTube. In the technically staid world of Australian spin bowling, this is quite a departure, and a breakthrough.

“A couple of times I’d put an idea to him and he’d be quite confident in saying no and going with what he thought was his best option to get a wicket”Nic Maddinson on captaining Nair

“I’ve got the offbreak, carrom ball, topspinner, slider, the legbreak is something I’m working on,” Nair says. “And I’ve got another ball I’m working on that looks like a legbreak but comes back in. I’m trying to work on that for next season, so we’ll see how it comes along – something different.”I’m an offspin bowler, and my stock ball is definitely my strongest ball, it’s just about finding out how to vary it and what are the best combinations for the batsman to play. When you start you want to know how many offspinners to bowl before you bowl a carrom ball – trying to understand my own game is the key.”I always like to be different, whatever it is. It’s a good opportunity for selectors to see something different, I guess. There are a lot of traditional offspinners and legspinners out there. Doing something different will hopefully show a different aspect of spin bowling in Australia. The pitches here don’t spin as much as they do in India, for example, so if you have the variety there, it will be harder for batsmen to play you. Everyone has different strengths and mine is variety.”Spin bowling itself is still relatively new for Nair, who was four when his father, Jay, first tossed balls to him. For most of the next decade, batting was the path Nair followed, and handy scores in his first two Shield matches for the Blues showed there is talent in both disciplines – numerous good judges in NSW think his batting may yet overtake his bowling.Arjun Nair started out as a batsman and part-time legspinner•Getty ImagesBut the breakthrough from junior and club cricket for Hawkesbury in the Sydney grade competition arrived after Nair began slowing down those aforementioned YouTube clips. He practised his variations in a compact backyard net constructed at the family home in the western Sydney suburb of Girraween, over time adding more pace, power and revolutions.”I was mainly a batsman who bowled part-time leggies,” Nair says. “Then I started watching a bit of YouTube, clips of guys bowling carrom balls and stuff. I’d watch clips of past matches, slow it down, watch replays and pick things up here and there.”I started trying that for fun at the backyard with my dad and he couldn’t pick it. At first I couldn’t get many revs on the carrom ball, but over time and getting used to it, I’ve started to get more on it and my accuracy has improved.”I was 15 when I started bowling it, and I was bowling it in matches about four months after that. So it wasn’t too long, but because batting was my main thing, it was just fun for me, I didn’t really think about it too much, there wasn’t pressure on me to quickly work on it. Now my bowling is getting ahead of my batting so it’s worked both ways.”Nair’s development was noted by NSW talent spotters, and he was encouraged through the fold of Under-19s and then the Futures League. Anthony Clark, a former NSW offspinner, and the one-Test wristspinner Beau Casson are useful sources of advice, while the NSW coach Trent Johnston has been influential too. Via Hawkesbury, Nair has also worked with Neil D’Costa, sometime mentor to Michael Clarke, Phillip Hughes and Mitchell Starc, to name three.

“I started trying that [carrom ball] for fun at the backyard with my dad and he couldn’t pick it. At first I couldn’t get many revs on the carrom ball, but over time my accuracy has improved”

“He’s talked to me about backing my skills,” Nair says of Casson, who was compelled to retire early from the game due to a heart condition in 2012. “What’s got me to this level is what I’ve done previously, so I don’t want to change too much. He also talks to me about my flight and different strategies I can use. He’s been a good help.”D’Costa, known primarily as a batting coach, is trying to make Nair work harder. “He’s been a good motivator, he has his own way of motivating people,” Nair says.He is very much a product of the T20 age. For instance, his support of sporting teams depends largely upon who is playing for them. His admiration for Cristiano Ronaldo has made him a devoted follower of Real Madrid, and a similar story is told when the topic turns to IPL teams.”Right now I go for Kolkata [Knight Riders] because Narine plays for them, one of the bowlers I looked at,” he says. “I support players more [than teams]. I used to like Adam Gilchrist so I supported Deccan Chargers back in the day, so I support players and whichever team they’re in I support that team.”This is not to say Nair is in any danger of leaving NSW anytime soon. He feels confident he is in the best part of Australia to develop as a spin bowler, and a range of contributions in his first two Shield matches helped build a sense of belonging. His captain in these matches, Nic Maddinson, was impressed by Nair’s skill, and also his confidence.Former Australia spinner Beau Casson helped Arjun Nair develop as a spinner•AFP”I know he’s very confident in what he does,” Maddinson says. “A couple of times I’d put an idea to him and he’d be quite confident in saying no and going with what he thought was his best option to get a wicket. I think that’s good in a young player. A lot of the time they can be persuaded by someone a little bit older to do what they want and then not feel as confident when they’re actually bowling.”A lot of the time we’re playing on nets that are like first-day wickets, so there’s not a lot of turn, but I think he’s quite cagey in the way he changes his pace and I think he understands bowling quite a lot for a kid his age. It’s a positive, someone who is 17 and knows what he does well and what he doesn’t do well, that’s all you can ask of him at this stage. He could be anything as a cricketer. I really like his batting as well, so an exciting player to watch.”Something Nair admits about his first two matches is the fact that first-class cricket provides batsmen with more time to size up his bowling, as demonstrated by the stonewalling defence Cameron White used in Alice Springs to squeeze Blues out of the Shield final. Slower pitches than he had encountered in club competitions also tested Nair’s pace, but he is eager to find the right method for challenges that contrast with the T20 contests that first caught his imagination.”When I beat the batsman and they don’t pick it I feel, ‘I’m on top here’, and that’s when you go in for the kill,” he says. “I found the pitches played a touch slower, so it was a bit easier for a batsman to play me off the pitch rather than out of the hand. They had a lot of time to see which way it was spinning, but that’s something I can work on too, to maintain a higher pace.”In T20 it’s harder to play me because there’s less time to watch the ball before you go for the big shots. In the longer format they have more time to look at it and play carefully. That’s something I need to keep improving and working hard on, trying to be hard to play.”Australian batsmen have returned from numerous overseas tours in recent times wondering at the wiles of spin bowlers whose approaches have seemed at times to be a long way removed from the Warne model. While Nair has plenty of work ahead, his mere emergence tells of a sea change in Australian slow bowling. As Maddinson put it: “He’s got a different way of bowling, and I think we might need that.”

Forced modelling and hideous addictions crowd our Twitter round-up

Alex Bowden10-Jun-2016If you’re going to be a pedant, be an entertaining pedant.

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What’s the alternative? Sharing wisdom with your followers? Seems like Shaun Pollock’s back to doing what he does best. Brace yourselves for some cod philosophy.

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Perhaps a lack of simplicity is why Graham Onions has been looking so tired these last few weeks.

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Our mistake.Maybe perk yourself up with a coffee. Is Kevin Pietersen still addicted?

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Guess so.

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Oh great, he’s made it a hashtag. That’s Twitter code for “this inconsequential little habit has now become a key part of my identity”.Surely there’s more to the man than that?

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See. He’s into intermittently checking the calendar as well. That’s an interest, right?Maybe he should take some tips from Umar Akmal. There’s a man who knows how to enjoy himself.

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Visibly living the dream.Umar Akmal’s photographic output underlines how you can really learn a lot about a player from what they post to social media (and check out his profile pic for an even clearer sense of what we mean by that).As another example, here’s Ahmed Shehzad in a playground.

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And here’s Shane Warne.

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And here’s the kind of thing Younis Khan posts.

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What a poser.But who are we to judge? We’ve never had to keep tens if not hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers hooked to our every update.

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Perhaps the need to experience things for himself was what drove Graeme Swann to seek out a branch of Nando’s. For so long the favoured restaurant of cricketers the world over, is the dream starting to turn sour?

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Swann says he went for a burger instead, so perhaps he still hasn’t had the edible part of this particular experience. Nando’s surely had some sort of excuse for the misunderstanding, though.

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Oh, give it a rest, Shaun.Finally, another recurring feature, and does Virat Kohli read this column or something? He’s been delivering in-flight selfies for us as regular as clockwork.Here’s the latest, which also boasts just the faintest whiff of “cricketer complaining about air travel” as a bonus.

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15-Aug-2016Steven Smith, the other overnight batsman, joined his partner four overs later for his 15th Test century•AFPThe duo’s second-wicket partnership extended to 246 as Australia held sway•AFPMarsh seemed set to grind it out for longer before he inadvertently chopped Suranga Lakmal on after being late to withdraw his bat•AFPFifteen balls later, Smith was masterfully done in by Rangana Herath, who enticed the Australian captain on to the front foot, before the ball spun away sharply and Kusal Perera completed the stumping•AFPMoises Henriques fell in similar fashion to Herath, before the left-arm spinner sent back Adam Voges too as Sri Lanka hit back with four wickets for 49 runs•Associated PressAustralia then fought back through Mitchell Marsh who scored a fighting half-century•AFPOffspinner Dilruwan Perera, who had slogged long and hard without any fruit, had his first taste of success when he dismissed Peter Nevill with his 234th ball•AFPMarsh fell after an error in judgement as he checked his flick that was held by Kusal Mendis at short leg•Associated PressHerath sent back Nos. 10 and 11 in quick succession to finish with 6 for 81. Australia were bowled out for 379 for a narrow lead of 24 runs•Associated PressSri Lanka sent a nightwatchman in Dilruwan to open, but Mitchell Starc trapped him lbw with one that shot back in. Sri Lanka ended the day on 22 for 1, trailing by two runs•AFP

Over three instalments of their rivalry in this series, R Ashwin has used control, cunning and temptation to get the better of New Zealand’s best batsman

Sidharth Monga10-Oct-20161:43

Agarkar: Ashwin’s line and length is impeccable

There is no point. The fielder, that is. The mind must keep telling you that there is no fielder at point. It is an over of temptation. An offspinner is bowling with a slip, a cover and a mid-off. It is not a new ploy on a pitch with some turn, but it is still a temptation. On the leg side, there are two men waiting for catches, two men to stop singles and two men to save boundaries. And this particular offspinner, R Ashwin, is teasing you; he is bowling short of a driving length, but not quite short enough to cut.At the start of this particular over, the 43rd of the New Zealand innings, Kane Williamson is on 8 off 19. He goes back to the first ball. Then he sees it is not short enough to cut and plays defensively with a straight bat, with the turn. Eight off 20 now. The next one is not full either. Williamson goes back again, that gap at point screaming, but again he makes a late decision that this is not short enough to cut. And he defends with a straight bat again. Eight off 21 now. The third ball of the over is defended off the front foot, the fourth stays low and nearly defeats the pull.On 8 off 23, Williamson has to be thinking runs too, especially after the momentum provided by the opening stand of 118 and with a quick outfield on offer. You can’t let India spinners bowl wherever they want to, because then you will be on nothing when on eventually gets you. Williamson, though, clearly remembers his dismissal in Kanpur where he had gone after a similar temptation and was done in by a more spiteful pitch. That ball had turned back with a puff of dust to hit Williamson’s stumps. You want the runs, you need the runs, but you must watch out against falling into that trap.The fifth ball of this over is again not full, but not too short; it lands in the same spot as the one that got Williamson in Kanpur. Williamson’s first instinct is to press forward here, but he finally gives in to the temptation. Perhaps he thinks this pitch is not turning as much as Kanpur, which makes him think he can pull off that daring shot. Graeme Swann once compared cutting an offspinner to patting a burning dog.Ashwin’s fields and his accuracy, coupled with the odd trick from the pitch, have made sure here that Williamson has to pat a burning dog if he wants to release the pressure. After Williamson has let two of them go by, the third one burns his fingers. It turns back more than he expects it to again, hits the high part of the bat, and goes on to the stumps. The look on Williamson’s face is of a man who knew he had bitten the forbidden apple.In between some classy strokes, Kane Williamson has fallen into R Ashwin’s trap on three occasions in three innings•BCCIThis construct for the wicket is a continuation of the hide and seek between Ashwin and New Zealand’s best batsman. It’s a shame Williamson missed the middle Test, for that would have added to the body of work that constitutes this story. Ashwin has got Williamson all three times he has batted in this series, all three times off the back foot, but Williamson, too, has played some cracking shots. Without looking frenetic, Williamson has managed to score 54 runs from 58 Ashwin deliveries. But leaving Williamson without too many scoring options other than in the off side off the back foot has been one of Ashwin’s big moves.With other batsmen, at times, Ashwin has bowled with 7-2 fields, leaving even the cover open, but with Williamson he has not been too adventurous. He has shown him enough respect, and has given him only the cut shot. Williamson has played 15 of the 58 balls from Ashwin into the off side. Nine of those 15 have been off the back foot, but only five of those nine have brought him runs. Only one of them has been a proper cut to a loose ball. Others have not been cutting length so they have been either punches through cover or dabs behind square.Ashwin remembers Williamson from his previous tour to India as someone who has a tendency to lunge. Ashwin remembers that dismissal from Bangalore in 2012-13 when Williamson lunged forward and nicked to slip. “I come into a series with a plan, especially taking off from where Kane Williamson got out in Bangalore when they came here last time,” Ashwin said. “He lunged forward and got out at slips. So he just lunges outside the off stump, so that’s one of the things I thought I would repeat in this series.”This bowling – not the usual length that Ashwin bowls – to Williamson perhaps points to keeping the ball out of reach when Williamson lunges forward. If he still manages to drive there is a fielder at cover. Most of Williamson’s runs against Ashwin have come from either the sweep or the punch off the back foot. That temptation to go to point, though, is always there when the bowler pitches it short of a length. As Williamson has found out on three occasions now, it hasn’t been short enough.

Reliving the final day of Chennai 2008, when Sachin Tendulkar piloted a record-breaking chase against England

Samarth Shah15-Dec-20162:05

Flashback: Sehwag, Tendulkar script memorable win in Chennai

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
I’d flown to India a mere seven hours before play began on the final day of the Chennai Test, so I was late getting to the ground. It didn’t help that my ride dropped me on Bells Road, diametrically opposite to the entrance of my stand on Victoria Hostel Road. I told security I could run from third man to long-on faster than Monty Panesar could get from third man to deep point, but they didn’t let me through.So I ran around via Wallajah Road, pausing once to take in the fact that hundreds, if not thousands, were being turned away from the cheap seats (F, G stands) because they were full. Young people, perhaps school and college students, who had taken the Monday off, but couldn’t afford the more expensive seats; fathers with young kids, perhaps going to their first Test day. And then I got to my stand: the TNCA pavilion, the most expensive seats in the house, tickets either complimentary, or given to season-pass holders, or to corporates.The stand was less than half full when I got in, and I even passed an empty seat with the name “AC Muthaiah” scrawled on it. I had an entire row to myself, although the stand was rapidly filling up, and by the end of the day would be about 60% full. The sight of young fans being turned away from what promised to be an exciting day of cricket was disappointing.Rahul Dravid fell in the third over of the day. In his defence, the delivery, from Andrew Flintoff, was one of very few that day that did something in the air.Then Sachin Tendulkar entered to warm applause. The crowd was still growing at this point, and the batsmen who walked in later got more raucous welcomes, actually. The welcome Yuvraj Singh got, given his fickle Test career and the nervous situation he was walking into, made me think, “Oh, the ODI and T20 fans are in the house now.”Tendulkar’s go-to shot on the day was the paddle sweep•Global Cricket Ventures-BCCITendulkar was off the mark immediately, and middling it well. A fellow chatting on his mobile took a spot in the row I’d owned up to that point. ” [“leader” in Tamil] seems solid, although I’ve just gotten in,” he said. He was evidently trying to convince someone to abandon their Monday plans and come to the cricket. Tendulkar was often accused of not coming through when the chips were down, but it’s amazing that over and over again, when they were down, there was always great expectations from him. It’s almost as if people were expecting lightning to strike them every time there was a storm.At this stage Flintoff was bowling superbly, making the ball move subtly off the seam in both directions. Graeme Swann was spot on. Panesar started with a five-run over, followed by some very quiet ones. He was bowling flat, but I thought it was part of the plan. England wanted to stopper India while probing for a breakthrough. That had been their successful game plan on day five in Mumbai in March 2006. At this point, England were doing everything right and India already faced a stiff ask.The plan began to unravel when James Anderson replaced Flintoff, and Panesar went over the wicket. Anderson’s modus operandi all day was to mix up very short and very full deliveries. He hardly bowled the three-quarter length. He was also the slowest of the three England pacers. Perhaps that was his interpretation of the team’s tactics: bowl short to restrict the batsman, and throw in the occasional full delivery looking for a wicket.Just when the pressure was beginning to ease on India, Gautam Gambhir fell while chasing a wider delivery from Anderson.Panesar’s strategy of going over the wicket was hard to understand – was he trying to attack by ripping the ball out of the rough, or stifle the scoring through a negative line? As it turned out, he was very inaccurate. In trying to hit the rough, he overpitched once or twice every over, bringing the paddle sweep into play. For much of his spell, the fielder at short fine leg was Steve Harmison, and India could get a run even if they hit it straight to him at normal pace.A couple of times, Panesar pitched it too short and got punished for it. His bowling was, for me, the second biggest disappointment of the day since he was the only bowler who was welcomed to the bowling crease with a cheer from the crowd. Even Flintoff’s spells were only getting excited murmurs.After a nervous start, Yuvraj Singh started to hit them hard•Global Cricket Ventures-BCCITendulkar paddle-swept Swann and Panesar for fours, and upper-cut Anderson over slips to the boundary in a fine and dandy exhibition of improvisation, but if I ranked the top six rousing shots of the day, not a single one of Tendulkar’s would make the list.VVS Laxman got off the mark in the first over he faced, but then appeared to have retreated into a shell. I remember Tendulkar walking up to him mid-over and motioning with his arms, perhaps exhorting him to play freely. Laxman responded in the most scintillating manner. First, he stood tall and, without much foot movement, freed his arms to send an Anderson delivery racing through the covers. Then he drove Panesar inside out past mid-off. Shortly before lunch, Laxman drove Flintoff just to the leg side of the bowler’s end stumps for another boundary that brought the crowd to its feet. Each of those strokes, along with a couple of punches down the ground by Yuvraj off the back foot, would make my list of top shots.Laxman was looking comfortable when, in the fourth over after lunch, he was caught at forward short leg by Ian Bell off Swann. The ball had turned and bounced more than he had expected it to, just minutes after Tendulkar had found it keeping perilously low at the other end. The ghosts of Mumbai 2006 were resurfacing. In that match as well, the wicket had appeared very negotiable before lunch on day five, only to seem unplayable later on.Yuvraj struggled right from the start. I saw Cook hand his box to Flintoff (yeah!), who then replaced him at silly point in order to give Yuvraj some verbals. There was one beauty from Swann that turned past Yuvraj’s outside edge, with the batsman groping down the wrong line.A more frightening delivery, from the crowd’s perspective, was one from Swann that popped up off the same length and was taken by a leaping Matt Prior over his shoulder. The thing about that delivery was that Yuvraj, not yet in double figures, had attempted to violently sweep it across from off stump and ended up misjudging the bounce by a foot. Although I was generally apprehensive all day, at that point I felt like India were standing on the precipice of defeat.Will it? Won’t it?•Global Cricket Ventures-BCCIMeanwhile, Harmison got his first bowl of the day, and thought he had Tendulkar lbw on 49, but umpire Daryl Harper didn’t agree. That was Tendulkar’s last mistake of the day. He spent eight nervous deliveries on 49, and when he finally reached his 50, there was a mass exodus from my stand towards the restrooms.Yuvraj gained a semblance of confidence, beginning with successive boundaries off Swann: a mere push through cover off the back foot followed by another violent sweep, this time making perfect contact.The first shot was one of the best shots of the day in my book, and the latter perhaps the hardest hit boundary of the day.Yuvraj continued to pepper the extra-cover/mid-off boundary off either foot against the spinners and the pacers. I think some of those boundaries could have been saved if someone other than Pietersen had been at mid-off. I assumed his injury was troubling him, because, at the time, he seemed to be in the Panesar-Harmison league of fielding.England were really hampered by the fact that they were carrying at least three very weak fielders, two of whom were, at various times, stationed at very important positions. Their best two fielders were Flintoff and Anderson, who drew applause virtually every time they fielded the ball.Tea came with Yuvraj looking comfortable and Tendulkar solid. I walked to the front of the stand, tried to lean over the balcony and peer into the dressing room, only to be motioned away by a commando with the butt of his automatic rifle.After tea, Yuvraj went from strength to strength. Tendulkar later said he tried to keep Yuvraj focused, even alluding to the chase against Pakistan in 1999. But it actually looked like it was Tendulkar who lost concentration or was overcome by fatigue once or twice.The new ball arrived with India needing 67 to win.I had seen a lot of Tendulkar’s batting for about 19 years at that point, and, to me, the biggest contrast from his heyday was the relative lack of dominance. I wondered what percentage of century partnerships he had dominated in the last five years. In his peak, if he timed it well, the ball went for four runs. That was not a given anymore. This was evident in his partnership with Yuvraj and Laxman. If those two middled it, the ball went for four. When Yuvraj lay back and nonchalantly swished a pull off Monty, the ball disappeared miles into the stands. When Tendulkar pulled Panesar with all his might (so hard he nearly lost his balance), the ball dropped ten yards short of the fence. Shortly before tea, he wound up a big back swing and slog-swept Swann over mid-on. The ball dropped to the ground and gently bobbled over the ropes.Perhaps he didn’t time it well, but the point I’m making is that a batsman who can reach the boundary at will draws a certain awe from the bowler. Think Viv Richards, who could mistime the ball and send it soaring over the ropes. At that point, Tendulkar couldn’t hit boundaries at will. He didn’t have that physical ability anymore. His best-executed, best-timed shots were not guaranteed to reach the boundary. I think he realised he could not dominate the bowling because of this and completely changed his approach to batting, becoming instead an accumulator.As India’s target fell to less than 50 runs away, with six wickets in hand, victory appeared a foregone conclusion, and in fact, so too did Tendulkar’s century.But we knew that if India lost two quick wickets, England would have the upper hand. And we knew that Yuvraj was outscoring Tendulkar by a long way and could well deny him his hundred.But once Tendulkar emerged from his post-tea loss of concentration, the entire crowd realised that it was his moment of destiny. India would win and Tendulkar would get his hundred.True enough, he raced to 96 with a couple of boundaries off Panesar: the inevitable paddle sweep, and, finally, an orthodox cover drive. The atmosphere in the ground was more charged than it had been all day. The cheers, chants, and bugles were making such a din, you couldn’t hear yourself think. In my stand, a couple of middle-aged gentlemen were standing, swaying, bobbing, and leading the cheering with whistles and hoots, while three rows of youngsters provided the chorus.Yuvraj already knew it was going to be a boundary•Global Cricket Ventures-BCCIYuvraj backed off. He patted a couple of harmless deliveries back down the pitch. The moment finally arrived off Swann’s bowling. The moment some were too afraid to contemplate that morning for fear of another disappointment.Tendulkar was on 99, India a mere four runs away from a memorable win. The instrument had to be the paddle sweep. Everyone around me stood up, raised their hands and applauded.Yuvraj was the first to anticipate the boundary and the first to comprehend the moment, leaping in the air halfway through the run. Tendulkar leapt in joy after turning around for the second. They met mid-pitch and Yuvraj lifted Tendulkar in the air.We all moved towards the front of the stand for the presentation. Pietersen was the only English player at the ceremony, accompanied by a few commandos. Curiously, a couple of the lesser-known English players were, at the time, wandering about the outfield without any security. But our focus was on the podium. Since I couldn’t hear the player interviews, the only point of interest for me was the Man-of-the-Match award.I thought Strauss would get it for his two centuries, but Virender Sehwag was probably also a good choice. I hadn’t watched any play on day four but those in the crowd who had were in no doubt whatsoever that Sehwag was the one who had completely turned the game around. There was one fellow who said a little after tea that he had the greatest regard for Tendulkar, that he was batting brilliantly, but irrespective of how much he scored on the final day, his knock would only be the second-best of the innings. Their thoughts were reflected during the presentation.