Playing It My Way: My Autobiography (46 page)

3rd Test. Mumbai (BS). 2–6 December 2009

Sri Lanka 393 (TM Dilshan 109, AD Mathews 99, NT Paranavitana 53; H Singh 4–112, PP Ojha 3–101) and 309 (KC Sangakkara 137, NT Paranavitana 54; Z Khan 5–72)

India 726–9 dec (V Sehwag 293, MS Dhoni 100*, M Vijay 87, R Dravid 74, VVS Laxman 62,
SR Tendulkar 53
; M Muralitharan 4–195)

India won by an innings and 24 runs

India won the series 2–0

In 2010, we faced three of the toughest assignments in international cricket and to maintain our number-one position we needed to do well in all of them. We had to play South Africa at home in February–March, Australia at home in October and New Zealand at home in November, before finally travelling to South Africa in December.

Before all these, however, we went to Bangladesh for a two-Test series in January 2010. While many feel Bangladesh are a pushover, they have surprised many a good side in the past and you underestimate them at your peril. This was evident in the first Test at Chittagong, which started on 17 January, where we were reduced to 209–8 in the first innings. The crowd was behind the local team and batting was a serious challenge against an inspired bowling attack, with Shahadat Hossain and Shakib-Al-Hasan both finally taking five wickets. Every wicket was greeted with a loud cheer and every boundary with pin-drop silence.

It was interesting to bat in front of such a partisan crowd. I scored 105 not out and we somehow managed to post a score of 243. Our bowlers did well to restrict Bangladesh in their first innings to one run less than our total, then Gambhir scored a century in our second innings, helping us to 413. Despite a century from Mushfiqur Rahim, the 415-run target proved too much for Bangladesh and we ended up winning by 113 runs.

In the second Test at Dhaka a few days later, where it was hot and sultry after the haze and chill in Chittagong, our fast bowlers again delivered in difficult conditions, with Zaheer bowling at his best in the second innings, getting an incredible amount of reverse swing to take seven wickets. We had batted well in our first and only innings, making 544, and Rahul and I scored centuries, setting the match up for Zaheer.

We reassembled to take on the South Africans in the first of two Tests at Nagpur on 6 February. The points situation meant that whoever won the series would be the number-one Test team.

In the first Test, Dale Steyn bowled brilliantly, ending up with ten wickets, and we were comprehensively beaten. Hashim Amla, with 253, and Jacques Kallis, with 173, batted superbly for South Africa and Amla was in extraordinary batting form right through the series. Kallis has always been a champion performer and is undoubtedly the best all-round cricketer of our generation. It has been a pleasure competing with players like these, who will surely be remembered as all-time greats.

Though we lost the game, I did manage to make a hundred in the second innings and I liked to think that my plan against Dale Steyn had started to work. He is an exceptional fast bowler and we knew we would need to play him well to make a comeback in the second Test, so the second-innings batting effort gave us a little hope in this regard. On the other hand, we had to accept that we had made it difficult for ourselves and were going to have to play out of our skins to retain our number-one Test ranking.

We were surprised to see a green top awaiting us at Eden Gardens. It had all but nullified the concept of home advantage, but there was nothing we could do about the pitch at that stage.

Again South Africa started well, but then we staged a miraculous comeback towards the end of the first day. From a position of strength at 218–1, South Africa collapsed to a modest 296 all out thanks to some terrific bowling from Zaheer and Harbhajan. We sensed we were in with a chance and put together a big first-innings total, with as many as four of us – Sehwag, Laxman, Dhoni and myself – getting hundreds. Sehwag and I had a terrific partnership of 249 after losing two quick wickets and we also scored at a phenomenal pace, unsettling the South Africans. Anything on middle-and-leg was flicked to the on side, while anything outside off stump was cut or driven. It was a dominant partnership and swung the pendulum in our favour.

Laxman and Dhoni built on the platform and we finally declared at a whopping 643–6, leaving the South Africans two whole days to bat to save the game. Unfortunately for us, the weather intervened on day four and a lot of overs were lost. By the end of the day South Africa had lost three wickets and we still needed seven wickets to close out the match.

The final day at Eden Gardens was Test cricket at its very best. Bhajji, who has a phenomenal record in Kolkata, bowled superbly, finishing with eight wickets in the match, and we took the final South African wicket with just a few overs remaining. The Eden Gardens crowd was behind us and the last wicket, Morne Morkel lbw to Bhajji, was greeted with a deafening roar. Bhajji ran almost half the length of the ground in delight and we were thrilled to have pulled off a stunning victory. We had retained our number-one ranking in the process and I felt all the more satisfied to think that, although my first hundred didn’t save the first Test, my second one did contribute to our win in the second Test.

In the three-match one-day series that followed I was run out for four in the first game at Jaipur on 21 February. I was disappointed with the dismissal but was pleased that I managed to make a contribution in the last over of the game, when the South Africans needed just ten runs to win. Dale Steyn and Wayne Parnell had staged a fantastic fightback after being reduced to 225–8 chasing 299, and though Praveen Kumar picked up Steyn with the first ball of his final over, the South Africans were within striking distance of the total. The last man, Charl Langeveldt, hit the third ball of the over past short fine leg and at long leg I dived full length to save what was a certain boundary. The umpires consulted the third umpire before finally ruling it a legal save. This made the difference in the end, with India winning the match by one run.

By the time of the second match, in Gwalior on 24 February, I was starting to feel really tired. It had been a long season and my body was beginning to raise some objections. I had aches and pains everywhere; my back was stiff, my ankles felt tight and my knees hurt. The physio Nitin Patel had to treat me for an hour and a half on the morning of the match and I told him that I wanted to finish the series off at Gwalior so that I could ask to be rested for the third and final game of the series.

When I got to the ground, all the pains and aches had just disappeared! I don’t know how it happened but it was one of those days when everything seemed to go my way. We batted first and I barely pushed at a ball from Wayne Parnell in the second over and was amazed to see it racing to the boundary. After that the balls consistently hit the middle of my bat and the run rate didn’t drop for the entire innings.

I had some good partnerships, first with Dinesh Karthik, then with Yusuf Pathan and finally with MS Dhoni, and they all batted well to take the pressure off me. It was only after I had passed 175 that I started to think about a double hundred. I had lost a bit of strength by then and, unable to play big shots, switched to finding the gaps and running hard. I was still running even when I was in the 190s, while Dhoni was pounding the bowling at the other end.

The moment finally arrived in the fiftieth over of our innings, when I steered the ball behind point for a single, becoming the first in the history of cricket to score an ODI double century. I was particularly glad I had been able to achieve the landmark in front of a home crowd. The team total had reached 400 and the sensation could not have been any better. In the changing room, Sehwag said to me, ‘
Aakhir aapne 200 bana hi diya!
’ (So you finally did score the ODI double ton!)

The job, however, was only half done and we knew South Africa had successfully chased 434 in 2006 – against Australia, no less – so it wasn’t a time to relax. History was not repeated in Gwalior, though, and in the end we managed to win the match convincingly by a 153-run margin.

Back in the hotel, I was feeling really tired but, because of all the excitement, was unable to sleep. Lying awake in bed, I decided to check my phone and found that it was flooded with messages congratulating me and I spent two hours responding to them, a task that eventually took me two days to complete. I was up early the next morning, too, but it didn’t really matter, as I was heading home for a much-needed break after one of my best ever seasons in international cricket.

I have to admit that there was another reason I could not sleep in Gwalior. The hotel authorities had very kindly given both Dhoni and me a suite each and these were located at a fair distance from the rooms of the rest of the team. My suite was enormous and even had a private swimming pool. The bathroom was gigantic and was separated from the main living room by a glass door. Outside there were huge trees and at night, with the silk curtains fluttering in the breeze, I didn’t find it the most comfortable room to sleep in. It was pitch dark outside and the size of the room, together with the unfamiliar sights and sounds around, made me seriously uneasy and I had to keep the bathroom lights on all night!

We started the 2010–11 season with a two-Test series against Australia. In the first match in Mohali at the beginning of October, VVS Laxman played one of his best ever innings for the team. Needing 216 to win, we had lost our eighth wicket with 92 runs still to get and Laxman, nursing a sore back, was our only hope. He batted like a man possessed, supported by Ishant Sharma, who showed exemplary grit for his 31. Though Ishant fell with 11 runs still to get, Laxman batted on and took us over the line, to win by one wicket. Laxman tormented the Australians throughout his career and this was another occasion when they threw everything at him but still couldn’t dislodge him. Laxman is one of the few batsmen capable of playing two different shots off every ball and his supple wrists made him a joy to watch from the other end.

Having beaten Australia at Mohali, we had already retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy when we arrived at Bangalore for the second and final Test of the series on 9 October. At the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Australia batted first, scoring a healthy 478, helped by a career-best 128 from Marcus North. I felt in good form from the very start of my innings. Not out on 44 at the end of day two, I batted through the whole of the next day and remained unbeaten on 191. I reached my forty-ninth Test hundred with consecutive sixes off Nathan Hauritz. It was my sixth Test century of the year and I had amassed more than 1000 Test runs in a calendar year for the sixth time in my career.

I eventually fell for 214 and, with the help of Murali Vijay’s 139, we managed a slender first-innings lead of seven runs before our bowlers got in on the act and dismissed Australia for just 223 in their second innings. We needed 207 to win the series 2–0 and I had the privilege of taking the team to victory with young Cheteshwar Pujara, who, on debut, scored a valiant 72 not out batting at number three, a position he has now made his own for India. I am convinced he has a great future ahead of him as a Test player.