Victory under Steel Grey Clouds: The Song of the 2002 Leeds Test

2002 was a year of many changes in the cricketing world, especially for Indian cricket. India were now firmly in the John Wright-Sourav Ganguly era and were starting to take some strides forward with the occasional speed-breakers in their path. The highs of the 2001 Border-Gavaskar Trophy win was accompanied by the lows of test series defeats in South Africa, West Indies, as also countless defeats in pressure ODI games in various triangular series finals and bilateral ODI series finales. But there was also an influx of younger, hungrier players such as Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag et al, who were ready to take the Indian team into a new age, and the tour of England in 2002 was being looked upon by this team management to mark the emergence of the Indian team in the 21^st century.

India had, on their tour of the West Indies just before this series, had taken a few drastic steps to shake up their ODI team, amongst them was the decision to do away with the specialist wicket-keeper in the ODI setup by giving Rahul Dravid the role of being the wicket-keeper-batsman. This allowed Wright & Ganguly to play a seventh specialist batsman due to the lack of quality all-rounder options at the time for India, while also deploying Sachin Tendulkar as a no.4 batsman in the ODI team, to lend experience to what was a young and inexperienced middle-order. The result of these changes was a 2-1 ODI series win in West Indies, the first for an Indian team in their history of touring the country, and this was followed up by their stunning win in the 2002 NatWest Triangular Series earlier in this tour, where the Final saw Yuvraj Singh & Mohammad Kaif mount a stunning fight-back from 146/5 to take India to a historic 2-wicket win, while chasing 326 to win.

For the 4-match test series that followed the Tri-Series, the John Wright-Sourav Ganguly hit upon an idea, which would turn the entire course of global test cricket and Indian cricket in the years to come. In a bid to throw opposition bowling attacks off their rhythm in the first hour of a test innings, they took a punt on promoting Virender Sehwag as an opener, who was blessed with a technique that was completely antithetical to everything opening batsmanship in test cricket but the fastest and most destructive set of hands and a hand-eye coordination on par with the best. The move paid immediate dividends in the first test at the Lord’s, where Sehwag pelted an aggressive 84 off just 96 deliveries, but India collapsed for just 221 in response to England’s first innings score of 487 and chasing a score of 568 runs in the 4^th innings, sank to a 170 run defeat, despite pacer Ajit Agarkar delighting the entire Indian dressing room with his maiden test century at a ground where Sachin Tendulkar would eventually never score a test hundred.

The second test at Trent Bridge saw India field a 17-year-old rookie wicket-keeper going by the name of Parthiv Patel, who played a stirring role in ensuring India managed to steer the test to a draw after England racked up a mountainous total of 617 in their first innings, in response to India’s score of 357, which saw Sehwag score a test hundred, which further vindicated the decision of the team management to send him up as an opener. The second innings saw India manage to overturn the deficit and steer away the imminent threat of an innings defeat, with Rahul Dravid embarking on a career-defining series with a 115, which was coupled with a 99 for the captain Sourav Ganguly and a 92 from Sachin Tendulkar, with Parthiv Patel digging his heels in like a limpet for 60 precious deliveries to score 19* as India drew the test and took some semblance of confidence into the third test, for which India moved up north through the M1 motorway into the city of Leeds.

The morning of 22^nd August, 2002 at the venerable Headingley Stadium, Leeds was a trademarked dark, overcast morning, with steel grey rain clouds hanging over the stadium. Coupled with that was a pitch, which had more than its fare share of grass. The toss on this extremely dreary morning was won by the Indian captain Sourav Ganguly and upon winning the toss, he announced that India would be batting first and made a few changes that shocked each and every observer of the game, be it the England team or the commentators, match officials, spectators on the ground or those watching the game from the comforts of their home. For this game, India took the massively surprising call of playing both their specialist spinners Anil Kumble AND Harbhajan Singh in the same playing XI with Ashish Nehra going out of the XI that played the second test and at the top of the order, all-rounder Sanjay Bangar was brought in to replace the out-of-form Wasim Jaffer and partner the in-form Virender Sehwag and also provide the team a medium-pace bowling backup to the pace-bowling duo of Zaheer Khan & Ajit Agarkar. The England team too made a few changes to their side, with pace bowlers Craig White, Dominic Cork and Matthew Hoggard being replaced by left-arm spinner Ashley Giles and pacers Alex Tudor and Andrew Caddick.

The test match started and India was immediately put under pressure when the in-form opener Virender Sehwag was packed off early, with Andrew Flintoff snapping him up in the slip cordon off the increasingly impressive Matthew Hoggard and India’s boat was already on choppy waters 15/1 in the 7^th over. That brought in Rahul Dravid to partner Sanjay Bangar at the crease and what then unfolded was a battle of attrition, which started to define the character of this team and the way the Indian team played in this game. Bangar and Dravid, on a spiteful pitch and a bowling attack that was bowling in great rhythm and with the overhead conditions backing them, batted with grit and gumption. Taking multiple blows on their chest and various parts of their bodies, they battled on and put up a stunning 170 runs for the second wicket, with them also punctuating those blows on the body with some beautiful stroke-play through both sides of the ground. The stand came to a halt when Bangar nicked off Flintoff to Alec Stewart behind the stumps for a superb & gritty 68 off 236 balls, having occupied the crease for close to 5 hours & helping Dravid blunt the fury of this pitch and the new ball with élan.

With the score now reading 185/2, Rahul Dravid was joined by Sachin Tendulkar and this pair too quickly found their feet. Sachin launched into playing a few delectable drives through the covers and midwicket, while Dravid too started moving his game into a slightly higher gear and in conjunction with Sachin, started building upon the foundations that were set by the second wicket partnership of Bangar & Dravid. Dravid raised a well-deserved century and ended the 1^st Day at 236/2 with him at 110* and Sachin batting at 18*.

Day 2 started from this point onwards the pair started off the day watchfully, but batted on with increased surety. Dravid was batting at 148 and the team’s score was standing at 335/2, left-arm spinner Ashley Giles got Dravid to edge off to the ‘keeper and that saw the captain Sourav Ganguly arrive at the crease and the innings slowly started going into overdrive mode with the entry of the captain. Ganguly started taking on the bowling attack and alongside Sachin, he ripped into the English bowlers, with particular attention being paid on Ashley Giles, who had achieved some success in the English tour of India earlier in the year, especially against Sachin Tendulkar. Ganguly took the attack to the English bowling attack & tore into them with furious intensity. The light also had started fading at Headingly, with the umpires even offering the Indian batsmen the light and the chance to call play off early, but Ganguly-Tendulkar refused the offer & just ripped into the bowling attack like a twin pair of piranhas with big hits booming out of their bats which now resembled more like cannons. The highlights of this partnership in fading light was Ganguly pulling a towering six over midwicket which struck a spectator flush on his head & blood was spilling while Sachin also hit a pair of sixes off Flintoff & Caddick over midwicket & square-leg, which drove the ESPN-Star Sports commentary team of the “Few Good Men” led by the legendary Geoffrey Boycott into pure ecstasy. Ganguly too raised a blazingly quick century before ultimately seeing his furniture shattered by Alex Tudor, but not before scoring a quick 128 (167), with a Strike Rate of just under 77, which accelerated the scoring rate for India and they ended Day 2 at a massive score of 584/4, with Sachin unbeaten at 185* at the end of the day.

Day 3 started with Sachin being dismissed really early, being trapped in front of his sticks by Andrew Caddick for 193, thus missing out on his second test double-century by just 7 runs and India soon declared their innings at a gigantic score of 628/8, a testament to the outstanding and battling display of their batting credentials, where their best men stood up and made it count.

England emerged to bat early on Day 3 after India’s declaration and the English opening pair of Rob Key and Michael Vaughan started off steadily against the Indian bowling attack and for 22 overs, they looked steady until Zaheer Khan struck and unlocked Rob Key’s defences by having him poke to second slip to VVS Laxman. That saw Mark Butcher walk into bat and for a little while, Butcher and Vaughan resisted quite well, but that was until Anil Kumble decided to make his first intervention in this match, by pinning Butcher in front of his sticks & terminating the fledgling 42-run partnership to bring the score of 109/2. That brought in the England captain Nasser Hussain to the crease to join Michael Vaughan, who had raised a half-century but didn’t stick around for long when Ajit Agarkar scalped him, with Virender Sehwag snaffling up his catch & was back in the hatch after scoring 61. Hussain followed Vaughan into the pavilion really quickly and England quickly subsided to 140/4, which then brought out Jon Crawley & Alec Stewart came to the crease, but Crawley didn’t survive for long, when Harbhajan Singh had him caught in the slips at the safe hands of VVS Laxman & Andrew Flintoff followed him back into the pavilion immediately, also at the hands of Harbhajan, and with the score reading 164/6, England were in a massive pickle & the new man Alex Tudor too didn’t stick around for long & England were reduced to 185/7, after Agarkar snapped Tudor up. With England in trouble & ‘keeper Alec Stewart looking for a reliable partner, left-arm spinner Ashley Giles emerged from the pavilion, and the pair set about trying to steer England away from the muddy waters they had encountered. For 15 overs, the pair resisted well & even added 70 runs to the total through their partnership, during which time Stewart also brought up a half-century, but Anil Kumble intervened once again & rapped the pads of Giles right in front of his stumps, which the umpires found to be hitting the stumps & Giles was packed off back to the pavilion. England’s score now was 255/8 and it didn’t take very long for their innings to wrap up, with the last two wickets, which were of Andy Caddick & Matthew Hoggard being taken out cheaply, by Harbhajan & Kumble respectively & England were dismissed for 273. The pick of the bowlers for India were the spin duo of Harbhajan Singh & Anil Kumble, who defied the expectations of the pundits & ended up with figures of 3/40 & 3/93, while Zaheer Khan & Ajit Agarkar ended with identical figures of 2/59, while their all-rounder/third seamer, Sanjay Bangar bowled just 4 overs for 9 runs. With a 355 run-lead in the bank, Sourav Ganguly had no hesitations in declaring follow-on for England and re-inserting them into batting once again.

Following-on, England didn’t start well, as Michael Vaughan was sent back, struck plumb right in front of the wickets by Ajit Agarkar for just 15, with England rocked early at 28/1 and that was followed by a start for Rob Key & Mark Butcher, before Kumble struck once again in the game to pick his 4^th wicket of the game by getting Key LBW and push England to 76/2. That brought the England captain Nasser Hussain at the crease to partner Butcher & they had another decent partnership, which was for 40 runs, before Sanjay Bangar justified his selection as being a masterstroke, when he scalped Mark Butcher for 42, with Rahul Dravid’s safe hands in the first slip doing the job & at the score of 116/3, England were fighting an uphill battle to prevent a shocking innings defeat. That brought in John Crawley to the crease and he too didn’t last long, as Bangar doubled his joys with the ball in hand when sent Crawley back in the hatch too for just 12 runs, with Sehwag snaffling him up with England at a score of 148/4 after this wicket.

That brought in the top-scorer of the 1^st Innings, Alec Stewart at the crease to join Nasser Hussain & the pair now got involved in a determined 117-run partnership for the 6^th wicket, during which time Hussain also raised a battling century, which started to raise hopes that there might be some fight left in this side. But the hopes of England were dashed at the score of 265, when Nasser Hussain, then batting at a score of 110, saw Anil Kumble pack him off and hit England’s dreams of saving this test really hard, with 90 runs still to go for preventing an innings defeat. That wicket reduced England to 265/5 & Andrew Flintoff walked into bat & was sent back almost immediately by Zaheer Khan for a second blob of the game and England were immediately 267/6, losing 2 wickets in the space of 2 runs & their troubles were further exacerbated by Alec Stewart being dismissed by Kumble, with Dravid grabbing yet another catch in the slips & with the score now at 267/7, England now looked prime for hurtling towards the inevitable innings defeat.

Ashley Giles came into bat alongside fellow tail-ender Alex Tudor and they tried to resuscitate the innings that was falling faster than the Titanic, and for 32 runs, they did try to resist, but that resistance crumbled at a score of 299, when Giles was caught short of his crease & was run-out by the Indian captain Sourav Ganguly, whose throw caught him short at the non-strikers end and England, now at 299/8 still had 56 runs to try and force India to bat again in the 4^th innings of this test, but had only 2 wickets in hand now. The last two wickets fell in the span of just 10 runs, that too at the hands of the Indian spinner-duo, with Tudor falling to Harbhajan to push the score at 307/9 & Andy Caddick fittingly being dismissed by Kumble, who had his 4^th wicket of the innings and that too being caught, with the catch being claimed by the man whose bold calls in this test match had now been justified. England sank to a score of 309 all-out and India had a historic win of an innings and 46 runs.

Anil Kumble was the pick of the Indian bowlers as he bowled a marathon spell of 29.5 overs and ended with 4/66, while Sanjay Bangar put in an extraordinary shift with the ball as well, bowling 13 overs of his medium pace & had 2/54 to show for his stunning efforts with the ball & the bat, while Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan & Ajit Agarkar all got a wicket each as well, with Harbhajan being at 1/56 from 27 overs, while Zaheer Khan had 1/63 from 22 overs and Ajit Agarkar 1/59 from 18 overs. The man-of-the-match award went to Rahul Dravid, whose body-bruising 148 was able to lay the foundation to script this epic victory.

The sight of India celebrating an unlikely win at Leeds, a first win for India in a test match in England since 1986, in conditions that never supported them and the sight of Sourav Ganguly twisting conventional cricketing logic to back two spinners on a pitch having more than a tinge of green to it & they ultimately delivering a win to their team & country, makes Leeds 2002 stand out as one of the most glorious victories in overseas conditions for India.