On this day: Team India dared the unthinkable and conquered 326 at the Lord's

Not every day do you get to witness history in the making. These moments are rare and on this exact day, 20 years ago, Lord’s stayed witness to one of the most outrageous historic moments in the antiquity of Indian cricket, as a bunch of ragtag Indians, least bothered about what the world had to say, spun together the onset of a cricketing revolution whose wheels were set in motion when a formidable English force was denied the last laugh in the Mecca of cricket.

After a string of warring displays, India managed to make the cut for the final where the soaring hosts were waiting for them, hoping to avenge their earlier defeat at Lord’s. Batting first, England got off to a mighty fine start as Marcus Trescothick led the way for the Three Lions.

Despite bagging the crucial scalp of Nick Knight early in the innings, Naseer Hussain would conjure a towering knock alongside Trescothick to pile up a mammoth 325 on the cards as the Indian bowlers fumbled in the dark with no clue about what was brewing ahead of them. By the time Kumble got the better of the English southpaw, Andrew Flintoff would take the wheel to belt a breezy 40 to help England reach a mammoth total.

With a colossus on the cards, Sourav Ganguly was in no mood to sit back and take it from the hosts as he took the fight right to the heart of the English bowlers and on a day where history was to be rewritten, the Indian skipper had fire in his eyes. Despite a blinder of a start, the visitors couldn’t really keep the momentum going as they lost the two openers in quick succession, allowing the hosts to make significant infringements.

Much to India’s woes, they would lose a flurry of wickets in no time, starring the likes of Dinesh Mongia, Rahul Dravid, and Sachin Tendulkar, as Ronnie Irani, the rebellious medium-pacer would collectively hit the stride alongside a seasoned Ashley Giles to leave India teetering along the fringes of decimation.

However, history isn’t written about sheer domination. It is about the downfalls too but what makes it historical is the rise from the fall. With the scorecard reading 146 for 5, even the most ardent Indian loyalists would not have dared to vote for an Indian win, especially with the cream of the Indian batting order back in the pavilion.

But then, cricket is a funny game with windings that can only be seen by the bravest enough who is willing to hang in there till that last ball is bowled. In one such rebellious uprising, two unlikely heroes took over the mantle, and with zero regard for caution, they pressed their feet on the gas. The English bowlers had no idea about what they were up against and for the Indians, the hopes started rising again.

The unheralded duo of Yuvraj Singh and Mohammed Kaif introduced the Indians to a different brand of fearless cricket and the Men in Blue were hurtling towards the Promised Land with falls in patches. By the time they were within touching distance of the finish line, they had two wickets to spare and they were up against Andrew Flintoff with Zaheer Khan on strike. In case you need a brief context of why this was worth mentioning, let’s just say Flintoff had just scalped two crucial wickets of Harbhajan and Kumble in quick succession and was on a mission to expunge the Indian tail.

The first ball of the final over flew past Zaheer Khan in a heartbeat with the Indian quick indecisive about what was to follow. To make matters much more complicated, Flintoff produced another ripper to leave Zaheer wondering about the entire universe with just 2 runs to be secured. As he the current pugilist steamed in for the third ball, he would produce a fuller delivery only for Zaheer to somehow stall it from going to his stumps.

But the ball would spring off his bat and the Indian batters would make the lunge for the change of ends as they needed Kaif on strike. The English fielders would make a hash of affairs with a wild throw that would fly past the stumps and Kaif would start steaming in from the other end already and Zaheer knew what exactly had to be done. He started running with a historic touchdown on his mind. That two-second run from one end to the other felt like years for the Indians and when Zak crossed the line, Sourav Ganguly took his jersey off and started waving it wildly in the gallery while the Indian supporters were left in a delirious frenzy of ecstasy as history was in the making.

England was conquered in their own den as an unimaginable target of 326 was won, numbers which seemed like a pipe dream back then, especially with T20 still being a moot of ridicule amongst the cricketing experts. That can stay for another debate but on this very day, Lord’s paved the path for a revolution that would go down as one of the greatest cricketing uprisings in the history of the sport.