Yuvraj Singh knows, the way he was batting, he had missed out on something really big when he was dismissed for 69 at the business end of the memorable 2002 Natwest Trophy final run-chase against England at Lord's.
Even though Yuvraj rates that as one of the best knocks of his illustrious career, slight pain of not scoring a ton and finishing off the job himself remains.
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"We had probably lost 9 or 10 finals before that and we didn’t have a good reputation on overseas tours. We all were new in the team and got a lot of backing from Dada (Sourav Ganguly)," Yuvraj said on India Today's Youtube show 'Sports Tak'.
"We were pretty down after England made 325. Back then targets like that used to be very difficult to chase. We got a good start but when Sachin Tendulkar got out I remember England players started celebrating like they had won the match."
A middle-order collapse followed soon after a terrific opening stand between Virender Sehwag and Sourav Ganguly to leave India staring at a massive defeat, being 146/5 in the difficult chase of 326.
But Yuvraj and the in-form Mohammad Kaif (87) stitched an amazing 121-run sixth-wicket partnership to put things back on track.
Yuvraj got out, but Kaif stayed there till the end to see India through.
"Almost 50% of the crowd had also left, mostly Indians (at 146/5). Then came Mohammad Kaif, we both said ‘haan khelenge’ (we will play). We ran between the wickets really well because we had played Under-19 cricket. We were hitting the ball really well, I was a bit more attacking of the two."
"After I got out, Kaif took over. It was probably the best knock of his career. One of my best knocks as well. If I had a little more brain back then, I would have scored a hundred," Yuvraj added.
The moment Kaif and tailender Zaheer Khan ran across for the final run, skipper Ganguly famously took off his shirt and waved it in jubilation from the Lord's balcony.
Yuvraj revealed he had also done the same but thankfully nobody noticed.
"I had removed my shirt but I was wearing another t-shirt underneath because it was cold in England. Nobody noticed it so I was saved," he said amusingly.
(Inputs from India Today)
