If it was short he would pull, anything pitched up would come screeching back past me and the more I bent my back to try and unsettle him (with what my high school mates used to refer to as pace) the more time Tendulkar seemed to have.

Had Tendulkar not been following all the negative media attention the touring party had been victim to? A whitewash in the ODI series and three Tests on the bouncy pitches against Pollock, Ntini, Nel and Steyn to come surely should not make Sachin and his team mates this confident?

Anyway, it had always been a dream of mine to bowl to the likes of Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman but now — three years after I quit the game — I finally got my chance. And I was having to work harder than I had ever imagined it would be.

When Chappell called: “Change it up” after what felt like an eternity, I had just started to think the torture was over. Then in walks Mr. Sourav Ganguly.

Ganguly at best is someone that will demoralise any attack, but for an unfit journalist to bowl to this man — with a huge point to prove and the cricketing world watching his every move — was something even less attractive standing some 30 metres away.

Luckily, Sreesanth gave me a few useful pointers on what I could improve on, and with that said the Ganguly stint went a whole lot better. So good in fact that after his knock had ended his icy gaze made way for a little smile as he put his arm around me and said I’d “done OK”.

... contd.