South Africa 177 (G Kirsten 43; A Kumble 4–71, J Srinath 3–42) and 180 (WJ Cronje 50; J Srinath 3–38, SB Joshi 3–66)
India won by 280 runs
India won the series 2–1
India in South Africa 1996–97
1st Test. Durban. 26–28 December 1996
South Africa 235 (AC Hudson 80; BKV Prasad 5–60) and 259 (AM Bacher 55, AC Hudson 52, BM McMillan 51*; BKV Prasad 5–93)
India 100 (SC Ganguly 16, SR Tendulkar 15; AA Donald 5–40, SM Pollock 2–18, BM McMillan 2–27) and 66 (R Dravid 27*, SR Tendulkar 4; AA Donald 4–14, SM Pollock 3–25, L Klusener 2–16)
South Africa won by 328 runs
2nd Test. Cape Town. 2–6 January 1997
South Africa 529–7 dec (G Kirsten 103, BM McMillan 103*, L Klusener 102*, DJ Cullinan 77; BKV Prasad 3–114, J Srinath 3–130) and 256–6 dec (BM McMillan 59*, AC Hudson 55, DJ Cullinan 55; J Srinath 3–78)
India 359 (SR Tendulkar 169, M Azharuddin 115) and 144 (VVS Laxman 35*, SR Tendulkar 9; AA Donald 3–40)
South Africa won by 282 runs
3rd Test. Johannesburg. 16–20 January 1997
India 410 (R Dravid 148, SC Ganguly 73, SR Tendulkar 35; L Klusener 3–75, AA Donald 3–88) and 266–8 dec (R Dravid 81, SC Ganguly 60, NR Mongia 50, SR Tendulkar 9; AA Donald 3–38, PR Adams 3–80)
South Africa 321 (SM Pollock 79, BM McMillan 47; J Srinath 5–104) and 228–8 (DJ Cullinan 122*, L Klusener 49; A Kumble 3–40)
Match drawn
South Africa won the series 2–0
India in the West Indies 1997
1st Test. Kingston. 6–10 March 1997
West Indies 427 (CL Hooper 129, BC Lara 83, S Chanderpaul 52; A Kumble 5–120) and 241–4 dec (BC Lara 78, S Chanderpaul 48; A Kumble 3–76)
India 346 (NR Mongia 78, VVS Laxman 64, SR Tendulkar 7; FA Rose 6–100) and 99–2 (R Dravid 51*, SR Tendulkar 15*)
Match drawn
2nd Test. Port-of-Spain. 14–18 March 1997
West Indies 296 (RIC Holder 91, S Chanderpaul 42; A Kumble 5–104) and 299–6 (SC Williams 128, S Chanderpaul 79; SB Joshi 3–57)
India 436 (NS Sidhu 201, SR Tendulkar 88, R Dravid 57; CEL Ambrose 5–87)
Match drawn
3rd Test. Bridgetown. 27–31 March 1997
West Indies 298 (S Chanderpaul 137*, CEL Ambrose 37; BKV Prasad 5–82) and 140 (BC Lara 45; A Kuruvilla 5–68, BKV Prasad 3–39)
India 319 (SR Tendulkar 92, R Dravid 78; FA Rose 4–77, IR Bishop 3–70) and 81 (VVS Laxman 19, SR Tendulkar 4; IR Bishop 4–22, FA Rose 3–19, CEL Ambrose 3–36)
West Indies won by 38 runs
4th Test. St John’s. 4–8 April 1997
West Indies 333 (BC Lara 103, RIC Holder 56; SB Joshi 3–76)
India 212–2 (A Jadeja 96, VVS Laxman 56)
Match drawn
5th Test. Georgetown. 17–21 April 1997
India 355 (R Dravid 92, SR Tendulkar 83; CL Hooper 3–34, FA Rose 3–90)
West Indies 145–3 (S Chanderpaul 58*, SC Williams 44)
Match drawn
West Indies won the series 1–0
India in Sri Lanka 1997
1st Test. Colombo (RPS). 2–6 August 1997
India 537–8 dec (SR Tendulkar 143, M Azharuddin 126, NS Sidhu 111, R Dravid 69; ST Jayasuriya 3–45)
Sri Lanka 952–6 dec (ST Jayasuriya 340, RS Mahanama 225, PA de Silva 126, A Ranatunga 86, DPMD Jayawardene 66; SC Ganguly 2–53)
Match drawn
2nd Test. Colombo (SSC). 9–13 August 1997
Sri Lanka 332 (PA de Silva 146, M Muralitharan 39; DS Mohanty 4–78) and 415–7 dec (ST Jayasuriya 199, PA de Silva 120; A Kumble 3–156, A Kuruvilla 2–90)
India 375 (SC Ganguly 147, SR Tendulkar 139; M Muralitharan 4–99) and 281–5 (M Azharuddin 108*, SC Ganguly 45, SR Tendulkar 8; M Muralitharan 3–96)
Match drawn
Series drawn 0–0
Sri Lanka in India 1997
1st Test. Mohali. 19–23 November 1997
Sri Lanka 369 (MS Atapattu 108, ST Jayasuriya 53; A Kuruvilla 4–88, J Srinath 4–92) and 251–6 (PA de Silva 110*; J Srinath 3–75)
India 515–9 dec (NS Sidhu 131, SC Ganguly 109, M Azharuddin 53, SR Tendulkar 23; M Muralitharan 3–174, ST Jayasuriya 2–59)
Match drawn
2nd Test. Nagpur. 26–30 November 1997
India 485 (SC Ganguly 99, R Dravid 92, NS Sidhu 79, A Kumble 78, SR Tendulkar 15; KR Pushpakumara 5–122)
Match drawn
3rd Test. Mumbai. 3–7 December 1997
India 512 (SC Ganguly 173, SR Tendulkar 148, R Dravid 93; KR Pushpakumara 3–108, HDPK Dharmasena 3–144) and 181–9 dec (R Dravid 85, NS Sidhu 43, SR Tendulkar 13; HDPK Dharmasena 5–57)
Sri Lanka 361 (MS Atapattu 98, PA de Silva 66, ST Jayasuriya 50; RK Chauhan 4–48) and 166–7 (ST Jayasuriya 37, RS Mahanama 35; A Kumble 3–56, RK Chauhan 3–59)
Match drawn
Series drawn 0–0
9
A FOUR-MONTH HONEYMOON
The three-Test series in March 1998 was the first fully fledged home series against Australia of my career. It generated a lot of hype and much of it was being built up as a contest between myself and Shane Warne. It’s inevitable that there are times when battles between two individuals hog most of the limelight. For example, Brian Lara versus Glenn McGrath, Ricky Ponting versus Courtney Walsh, or even Tendulkar versus Lara, as had been the case in 1994. I always said that this series was a contest between two teams and not two individuals, though in my heart of hearts I knew it was a very important match-up against Warne. Shane was bowling beautifully and had just had a great series against South Africa in Australia, taking twenty wickets in three Tests.
Knowing that I would soon be facing him, I studied Warne’s bowling in that series carefully. It appeared to me that his biggest strength was the drift he managed to get, which meant that the batsman was somewhat blinded by the delivery if he was batting with a traditional side-on stance. Because of the extra drift, the ball would tend to go away from the vision of the batsman and it became that much more difficult to negotiate the extra spin. As a result, I decided to open up my stance a little to Warne and to stand slightly outside the leg stump. I also planned to play him more from the crease and as late as possible. I hardly stepped out to him all series and, more often than not, kept hitting him towards midwicket with a horizontal bat whenever he tried to extract extra spin from leg stump or slightly outside. By playing from the crease and by using the horizontal bat, I reckoned I had opened up the option of punishing him if he bowled short and could also play the cut shot on the off side. While there was always the risk of a top edge, I was prepared to accept it to surprise Warne. After all, he was Australia’s most potent weapon and I had to have a strategy against him.
Having worked on the theory, I now needed to practise against the kind of deliveries Warne would use when under pressure. I started training in late January, with still a month to go before the series, and asked for the best spinners available in Mumbai to bowl at me from round the wicket into the rough outside leg stump. I was certain that’s what Warne would do if I succeeded in attacking him when he bowled from over the wicket. All that practice in Mumbai against Sairaj Bahutule and Nilesh Kulkarni, both of whom played for India against Australia in 2001, and subsequently in Chennai against Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, now a respected television commentator who played for India in the mid-1980s, proved immensely useful, and by the time the Australians arrived in India in February 1998 I felt ready to face Warne.
An early skirmish
The first game the Australians played was against Mumbai on 24 February. I was captaining Mumbai and knew it was crucial to establish a psychological advantage over the visitors at the start of the tour. The most important thing was to attack Warne. I had instructed all our batsme
n to take Warne on whenever he came on to bowl. I did not care if we lost wickets, but there was no way we would allow Warne to settle into his groove and dictate terms.
When it was our turn to bat, Amit Pagnis, opening the batting for Mumbai, did exactly what we had planned. Though we lost an early wicket in Sulakshan Kulkarni, Pagnis and I attacked Warne from the start. While Pagnis hit Warne for four boundaries in two overs, I hit him for a six in his very first over and continued to attack him right through the innings. His sixteen overs cost him 111 runs and that was far more important than my own double hundred off 192 balls – though I was particularly pleased with my effort because I had made a conscious attempt to dominate the bowling and it was my first double in first-class cricket. Having conceded a lead of more than 100 in the first innings, the Australians collapsed to 135 all out in their second innings, with Nilesh Kulkarni, who had first played for India in 1996, running through half the side. We finished the match without losing a wicket in our second innings, handing the Australians a ten-wicket defeat.
A crushing loss in the first tour game was the worst possible start for the world’s best team and was more than we could have hoped for. We now needed to carry the momentum forward into the first Test match in Chennai. Of course, I was well aware that the Australians had not played all their cards against Mumbai. Even when we were attacking Shane Warne, not once did he bowl from round the wicket into the rough outside leg stump. I was certain he would do so at the first available opportunity in Chennai, and I even said as much in the post-match press conference in Mumbai. The series was nicely set up.
First Test, Chennai, 6–10 March 1998
Having played a lot of cricket in Chennai, I knew that the physical preparation in the lead-up to a Chennai Test has to be different from normal. You have to prepare your body for the heat and humidity well in advance and I always did so at least thirty-six hours before the match by drinking a lot more water than normal. The extra water intake was particularly important, because you lose so much fluid during matches at the Chidambaram Stadium.
Nowadays, unlike in the late 1980s and 1990s, when there wasn’t much research about players’ diets and training schedules, cricket is much more sophisticated about such matters. There are specialized dieticians who draw up charts of what players can or can’t eat. After long and arduous batting stints, players take ice baths and drink specially prepared shakes to rehydrate the body and replace lost energy. For example, I remember Paddy Upton, our high-performance trainer, asking me to drink two glasses of a shake made of crushed dry fruits after a particularly draining innings at Gwalior in 2010.
At Chennai, we won the toss and opted to bat first. It was an important toss to win, as the ball was expected to turn in the fourth innings and we were playing three spinners in Anil Kumble, Rajesh Chauhan and Venkatapathy Raju. Despite a good start, with the top three of Mongia, Sidhu and Dravid all scoring fifties, we lost our way in the middle of the first innings and failed to push home the advantage, getting bowled out for a modest 257. Batting at number four, I managed just four runs and fell to Warne. I hit him for a boundary and then tried to repeat the shot, only to get an outside edge to Mark Taylor at slip. I was extremely disappointed with myself for not playing myself in and was determined to make amends in the second innings.
Our bowlers, in particular Kumble and Raju, did well to get the first eight Australian wickets for 201. It seemed we had a good chance of taking a first-innings lead, but we were frustrated when the Australian wicketkeeper Ian Healy and off-spinner Gavin Robertson, the debutant, put together a very good partnership. They added 96 runs between them, and Australia eventually gained a 71-run advantage. It seemed a crucial lead and at a dinner organized by former BCCI president AC Muthiah, Srinivas Venkataraghavan, a former India captain and leading off-spinner of the 1970s, said to me that it would be very difficult for us to get back into the match. He said that he thought there wasn’t enough time left in the game to make up the deficit, set a target and finally bowl Australia out to win the match. I replied confidently that there was still plenty of time and that I was sure we would be able to turn things round.
Before the start of our second innings I remember saying in the dressing room that it was the responsibility of the batsmen to put their hands up and try to score 75 runs each for the team. You don’t always need to set the bar really high and demand a hundred. I thought that scoring 75 in the second innings at Chennai would be good enough to set up the match.
When Sidhu was out for an important 64, I walked out to bat at 115–2, in effect 44–2 after deducting the deficit of 71 runs, and as on many occasions in my career I had Rahul Dravid for company in the middle. I started out watchfully and was soon into my groove. As expected, Shane Warne started to bowl round the wicket and I instantly took the attack to him and hit him over midwicket. From an individual perspective it was a defining moment in the game. We couldn’t afford to lose another wicket, but we also couldn’t go too much on the defensive.
Rahul and I added more than a hundred runs, to set up a strong platform. By the time Rahul was dismissed for another well-played half-century, I felt in control. I went on the attack and scored at a fair clip, hitting fours and sixes with regularity. Azhar gave me good support and we also added over a hundred runs, at almost five runs an over, a potentially match-winning partnership.
When we declared, I was not out on 155, the first-innings lead had been nullified and we were in with a great chance of winning the match, having set the Australians a target of 348 on a turning track. It was certainly one of my better hundreds and what made the sensation sweeter was that we proceeded to bowl the Australians out for 168, with Kumble taking four wickets, and we won the match by 179 runs. It was a tremendous start and, to add to my delight, I was Man of the Match. I had made up for getting out to Warne cheaply in the first innings of the match.
Importantly, we had performed as a unit and most of the senior members had played their parts to perfection. Anil had taken eight wickets in the game while Navjot Sidhu, opening the batting, had done a good job in both innings. He had attacked Warne from the start of our second innings and had set the game up for the other batsmen. Rahul too batted well in each innings and pocketed a couple of important catches at slip. We had shown good fighting spirit and that, more than anything, augured well for the team for the second Test match at Eden Gardens in Kolkata later that month.
Second Test, Kolkata, 18–21 March 1998
If Chennai was a rollercoaster, we were in control in Kolkata from the start. Australia won the toss at Eden Gardens but failed to press home an early advantage, losing four top-order wickets within the first hour of play. Srinath bowled a fine opening spell to take three wickets and Sourav too chipped in with the wicket of Mark Taylor. Despite a brief period of Australian resurgence under Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting, we kept our nerve and bowled them out for 233 in the first innings.
Our batsmen followed up with some big runs and for a rare occasion in Test cricket all first five batsmen passed 75, with Azhar going on to score a hundred at his favourite venue. I scored 79 and once again took the attack to Shane Warne, who went wicketless in his forty-two overs, conceding 147 runs. The plan against Warne was working and without his wickets the Australians were in trouble. I remember one particular shot against Warne on day two. In my determination to attack him, I hadn’t noticed that it was the last over before tea and I hit him for a big six over long on, which I normally wouldn’t have risked so close to a break. It just goes to show how hard you had to concentrate to cope with Warne.
We knew, of course, that the Australians were all excellent players, despite being at the receiving end for the time being, and we knew that it was important to keep them under pressure throughout the match. A champion team needs only a small window of opportunity to stage a fightback, something I had learnt over the years. If the Australians were on the back foot, you couldn’t allow them the whiff of an opport
unity to stage a recovery. We needed to be ruthless and we were. Having scored 633 in our first innings, we let Kumble and Srinath do the rest on a track that was offering variable bounce. Australia collapsed for 181 in their second innings, giving us one of our biggest Test wins. More importantly, we were 2–0 up in the three-Test series against the best team in the world and were justly proud of the achievement.
Third Test, Bangalore, 25–28 March 1998
In the final match of the series our team included a teenaged debutant in off-spinner Harbhajan Singh. I scored a big hundred in the first innings and once again we managed to put the Australian bowlers under pressure. Though Warne picked up three wickets, he also went for a lot of runs. To his credit, he was always in the game, despite being attacked. In fact, as I played out the last over of the first day against him, I had to keep telling myself to concentrate till the very last ball was bowled. A true great, Warne would not let you relax for a single delivery.
Mark Waugh batted brilliantly in the Australian first innings, scoring an unbeaten 153, and Michael Kasprowicz, the fast bowler, picked up a five-wicket haul in our second innings to set up the match. I was caught and bowled by Kasprowicz for 31, playing a ball early, and we collapsed for a paltry 169. There was no doubt about it: Australia had played better than us in Bangalore and had shown what they were made of. For our part, we were disappointed at not closing out the series on a winning note.
It was one of the most intense series I played in my career, and one of the most personally successful. I had scored close to 450 runs at an average of 111. Weeks of rigorous practice had paid off and it was a deeply satisfying feeling.
Pepsi triangular series, April 1998
Playing It My Way: My Autobiography Page 15
