We had this competition between batsmen and bowlers: Venkatesh Prasad on T20 World Cup bowl-out

When you hear the name Venkatesh Prasad, you will definitely remember one of the greatest incidents that happened in India cricket. The fitting response to Aamer Sohail in the 1996 World Cup Quarter-Final at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, will always remain in our hearts.

The 50-year-old appeared on Ravichandran Ashwin’s YouTube show, 'DRS with Ash', where he spoke about the key to the team's success at the bowl out in the first-ever T20 World Cup.

"We had gone through the rules and regulations of the World Cup. When there was a tied game, there was no Super Over back then, there was a bowl out. Obviously, we always use to practice it," he said.

Interestingly, Venky pointed out that there were competitions between the batsmen and the bowlers to see who could be a better asset during the bowl-out. "We had this competition between batsmen and bowlers. Most of the batsmen wanted to bowl as well, like MS Dhoni, Sehwag, and Robin Uthappa. We had this competition in these nets. You go through those net sessions a day in and day out. So we wanted to have fun some element as well. So we brought in the bowl out. I was looking at what was happening from behind. So I knew who was hitting the wickets consistently. That's when I saw Sehwag hitting, Uthappa hitting and Harbhajan hitting."

India had to play Scotland in their first match of the tournament but, rain played spoilsport. Thus the match got abandoned without a ball being played. India faced arch-rivals Pakistan and needed a win to qualify for the Super-8 stage of the tournament. 

Shoaib Malik won the toss and decided to field first, and India set up a target of 142 for Pakistan to chase. India restricted Pakistan to 141 and had to be decided via a bowl-out. 

"So we said okay fine. Nobody expected that our very first match will have a bowl-out. It was a tight game. It was a bowl-out. It was not hard for me to convince MS Dhoni, saying 'these are the guys who are doing well'. We had to take our chances as well. We did take a bit of chance there, having Sehwag and Uthappa. I had to back my instinct and make a decision. The slower bowlers are more in control of their bodies and delivery. They had a straight-arm action," the former coach added.