The Unbelievable Upset!

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'I knew we could beat them'

Sardesai on the match I knew we could beat them that day -- the main reason being Chandrasekhar.

He was one of the great unpredictables of cricket. He could run through sides before you knew what was happening, he had a faster ball that was actually quicker than what our seam bowlers were bowling.

Those days, there were two horses that were often talked about -- one was Milgreaves, which by reputation was very fast, and the other was Brig. Gerrad.

I was fielding at mid off and when Chandra looked at me, I'd say 'Milgreaves', and he would bowl the faster one.

John Edric got one of those -- his off stump was gone before he could even bring his bat down. Next up was Keith Fletcher, and you could tell that he was nervous even as he walked in.

Wadekar and I shared a vital partnership, some 60-70 runs, that was one of the highlights for me. All we thought about was staying there, we kept our focus on the target, 173, and decided to take it as it comes. I still remember how in the first over of the morning, on the fifth morning, I guided one from Underwood to third man and Wadekar took off for a run, D'Olivera threw direct and got him out.

In any case, it didn't matter -- in the end, Abid Ali and Farokh Engineer got together and took us home. You know how Farokh was -- bang, bang, bang, no pressure, no tension, he just did what he had to do.

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As spoken to: Ashish Magotra





Chandrasekhar | Eknath Solkar | Dilip Sardesai | Ajit Wadekar | Ray Illingworth