Kaif reveals his "Hum bhi khelne aaye hain" jibe made sure Ganguly stayed mum during 2002 NatWest final

Ganguly was screaming at Kaif from Lord's balcony during 2002 Natwest series final chase.

Yuvraj Singh, Sourav Ganguly, and Mohammad Kaif | GETTY

One of the many highlights of the captaincy career of Sourav Ganguly will always be the Natwest series final between India and England in 2002. The encounter, which was played at Lord's, is counted as one of the most memorable matches by fans.

India had chased down 326 runs in the final match and it wasn't an easy win for the men in blue. The then youngsters Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif's partnership had brought India back into the game after India were struggling at 146/5 in 24 overs after a start of 106/0.

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Kaif and Yuvraj recently came live on Instagram together and talked about the chase. They revealed Ganguly was screaming from the Lord's balcony when asking rate started to rise. He wanted Kaif to take a single and keep Yuvraj on strike.

“I remember Dada was screaming “take a single, take a single, give the strike to Yuvraj”, said Kaif. Yuvraj added, “Dada asked you to give me a strike. He kept screaming, take a single, take a single. And what did you do on the next ball?”

Kaif remembered he had smashed a short delivery for six the next ball. “I got a short ball on the next ball. I had a knack of hitting pull shot on short deliveries at the time, so I smacked a pull shot and it went for a six.”, he recalled.

Yuvraj reminded Kaif what he did after hitting the six and they both laughed about it. “What did you do afterward you hit a six? You came to me, gave me a punch and said ‘Hum bhi khelne aaye hain!’ (both laugh). Dada went quiet after that. He realized Kaif can also hit sixes.”

Kaif added, “I remember someone was ready to bring out water as Dada wanted to send instructions to me to run a single. But then after that six, no one came. Dada was like ‘sab jahan ho wahin bethe raho’.”

Kaif had scored an unbeaten 87 off 75 balls in the match, hitting 2 sixes and 6 fours in his innings. Yuvraj added 69 runs off 63 balls and got out in the 42nd over. 

 
 

By - 22 Apr, 2020

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