Sourav Ganguly and his young team achieved the NatWest Trophy final against England on July 13, 2002, when they chased down a target of 326 at Lord’s cricket ground with three balls to spare.
Virender Sehwag hit forty five off forty nine balls while Sourav Ganguly scored sixty from fours three of them. The opening partnership between them was worth 106 runs in just under fifteen overs.
On the internet, there is a video in which Sourav Ganguly is speaking to some people at Lord’s about how he developed as a captain after the NatWest series victories and what he learnt about leadership from Virender Sehwag on that day.
“What I want to share with you guys today is a story about leadership, man management – the case being me and Sehwag batting together at that time. We were chasing that night – 320 where I took my shirt off and I was very upset at lunch because England got 300-325 and in those days, this was about 2002, you very rarely chased 325, it was not like modern day cricket where you just keep hitting. The game has changed a lot.”
Ganguly continues, “So I walking down this long room at Lord’s and Sehwag was whistling behind me , he is that sort of a person, I turned back, abused him and said ‘ek toh 325 bana dete ho and you think it’s a joke’. He walks past me and said. ‘skip we’re going to win this’. I said ‘let’s see’. So we went, we started very well, both of us. After 7 overs, we were about 70 for no loss. I was batting on 40 odd and Sehwag was also batting. So Ronnie Irani was bowling and I went up to Viru and said we’ve got a good start, i think we can get this total but don’t get out. We’ve played the harder bowlers, there’s a weaker bowler coming in let’s just keep taking six-seven runs an over because that’s what we need. He said ‘yeah yeah fine no problem.’ So Ronnie runs up from this end; first ball over mid-off four. So I was at the non-strikers end I went up to him tapped and said ‘good shot so we have got four runs in the over just keep rotating (the strike). He said ‘yes yes no problem.’ So he goes back to his end next ball Ronnie pitches it up hit over the top of mid-on one bounce four. So I again go up to him and said well played, well played, good shot we’ve got 8 you can still take singles. He said ‘yes, no problem, singles’. The next ball, Ronnie Irani pitches it up; he sits down and sweeps right from the middle stump out for four could have hit his pad gone I did not go up to him. He did not even look at me because he understood. So he turned his face took guard and batted again. The next ball he again hit him over covers for a four. So on five balls he hit five boundaries. And on the sixth ball he took a single and as he walking past me he said ‘I’ve taken a single’. And this is happening in the middle, we got 22 runs that over, he smashed him, he was so good. I was furious at the other end because he did not listen to me.”
Ganguly adds, “I had two options; either I walk up in the middle and give him my piece of mind.” So I took a couple of minutes pulled myself back and went upto him keep concentrating.” From thereon didn’t tell him anything more than that – He played an absolute blinder of a knock and we won”.
We were through with the game, we won it and as I sat in this upstairs room, he sat some distance away from me, I kept thinking, I told myself you know you won this match today because this gentleman at the opposite end just took the opposition bowler on. And what would you tell him? Be defensive, get a single one so as to change over but he was one who thought that in that over he could smash him for 20 and turned around the game. And this is something I want to share with all of you here because sometimes as a leader when dealing with different individuals you have your own style of doing things. You have your own way of succeeding and go tell him ‘hey let’s do it my way cos’ I think its right and we will win like that. But there’s another guy who’s more talented than you, more gifted than you, looks at things differently and probably has a better solution to your problems. Yet on that day Sehwag had a better solution than me. And it taught me a big lesson there. We did win this game; it made me a better captain. A few days later, I met him for breakfast whereupon I asked why did you do this? He asked me ‘Are you angry on me?’I said ‘I was,I’m not any more’. He said ‘good’. My response was ‘why didn’t someone else hit?’ His reply was ‘I felt that was the best thing to do at that particular moment’. That was the best thing I felt would win india the match at that point.’ And it proved an important leadership lesson for me. I said see i have different Sehwag, i have different Dravid, and I have different Ganguly also I have different Harbhajan Singh. They cant play same way. Therefore if they are going to be successful then we must understand they are going to win cricket matches the way they do it and we have got to allow them to do that.
Ganguly went on “And I think a successful group, successful entrepreneur together with your objectives for wanting to be successful in life don’t forget such simple line and solution that nobody is like you not everyone can play in the same manner or work in the same way. Whenever he does it for you, a leader needs to have that adaptability within him. And that is why I say when managing individuals, you must manage them differently. Every person cannot act behave perform and carry out things in a similar fashion as each other. This is crucial in leadership”.
Mohammad Kaif blasted an unbeaten 87 while Yuvraj Singh added 69 as India pulled off one of the most amazing victories ever seen in cricket.
India was struggling at 146/5 with both Yuvraj and Kaif coming together at the crease.
The duo managed to put on a partnership of 121 runs giving India hopes of winning the match.
There was a time when Yuvraj Singh got out with 69 runs on the board; however, Mohammad Kaif stayed till the end with the last two wickets to give India a win by two wickets and three balls to spare.
After that, he had taken off his blue shirt at the Lord’s balcony –a picture still fresh in all Indian cricket lovers’ minds.
