When Sourav Ganguly took over the reins of the Indian cricket team as a captain, India was evolving as a cricketing nation and was lightyears away from where they are today. There were far too many experiments in place and barring the select few, India was always rotating their squad to find the best fit for themselves.

2002 was a significant year for Indian cricket because they played a lot of important series back then which included the likes of the famous Natwest tri-series. One such important series in that year was when West Indies toured India for three Test matches and seven ODIs.

India bagged the Test series comfortably but was beaten in the two opening ODIs by West Indies. The rain gods assisted India in bagging an important win in the third contest with four games to go in sealing the fate of the series.

The visitors won the toss and opted to bat first that saw Chris Gayle manifesting his intimidating incarnation to blow the Indian bowlers out of the contest. He received significant support from Ramnaresh Sarwan who would score a crucial 99 from 104 balls.

India began the chase on a wobbly note as they lost their openers even before the team crossed the 50-run threshold. Laxman and Dravid came together to stabilize the ship and played a fine partnership of 103 runs to help India stay afloat.

Yuvraj Singh chipped in with some crucial strokes to stitch another decent partnership that saw them putting together a stand of 61 runs. India still more than 90 runs away from the total, lost Mohammad Kaif. Sanjay Bangar was in next and his batting credentials weren’t really as impressive as you want from a number 7 batter.

Much to everyone’s surprise, he started a blitzkrieg that very few people could have imagined. He started his onslaught against Mahendra Nagamootoo with a couple of back-to-back boundaries that insinuated the storm that was about to come.

Chris Gayle was next in his list to face the wrath of the current RCB coach. He was at his fiery best and the visitors were left stunned at the sudden turnaround of events.

Shortly this breezy danger turned into a full-blown storm as Bangar took on Pedro Collins and smoked him for a boundary and a six in the same over. Such was Bangar’s dominance that it allowed Dravid to comfortably hang in at the other end while India levelled the series with 14 balls in the game to spare.