Last throw of the dice

The only instruction to him was to not give away the six. Anyway, it's not like Javed Miandad was batting.

—Sourav Ganguly (Karachi, 2004)

Ashish Nehra huffs and puffs to steady his nerves, even as captain Sourav Ganguly chirps into his ears, undoing the breathing exercises. Six runs, one ball, Pakistan on the brink of the impossible again. Javed Miandad watches from the dressing room, while Moin Khan tries to emulate a feat that only his coach pulled off during his playing days. India had been at the wrong end of this equation once against the hosts. Surely there couldn't be a repeat.

Nehra wobbles in, and pulls the trigger on the yorker. He misses, and bowls a wide full-toss. A surprised Khan slices it down mid-on's throat. India win by not conceding the nine runs in the final over. Phew, they go collectively. In such 'rare' situations, Ganguly explains later, the yorker is the key. Even if it goes wrong, he argues, the alarming full-toss is almost as hard to get away. Then, eight years later, the pair try it again.

Fast forward to the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, and it's not just a different country, but a vastly changed cricketing world. Even Nehra doesn't breathe so hard anymore. Pune Warriors skipper Ganguly, with arms clasped against chest, perhaps wonders if 21 runs could be defended in the last over. Bangalore's AB de Villiers doesn't think so and gyrates all over the batting crease. With a reverse scoop that is eventually played off his elbow guard, he simultaneously forces Ganguly to think of a long-stop, and Nehra about the yorker.

The yorker flies over long-off for six, the following back-of-a-length ball is paddle- flicked over fine-leg for another maximum and with a single off the penultimate ball, novice Saurabh Tiwary is left to score at a strike-rate of 300. Nehra misses the yorker, again, and Tiwary clubs the full-toss over his head for twice the number of required runs. Ganguly says 'These things happen,' and Nehra lives to fight another day. Now, there are plenty of Miandads around.

... contd.

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