A shirt twirl, a partnership and a bus driver taking India home: The 2002 Natwest final legacy that never dies

Every decade since attaining independence, Indian cricket has provided one match that has gone to become the stuff of discussions on many forums.

The legacy of those games never seem to dip but on the contrary, always rise with each passing year.

The 70s had the famous Test matches victories at Port of Spain in 1971 and 1976 and The Oval in 1971, where India proved they could win overseas more than once.

The 80s had the triumphs at the World Cup in 1983, the World Championship in 1985 and the Test series win in England, the following year.

The 90s, albeit at home, produced some great matches, most of them involving Sachin Tendulkar as the centrepiece.

Entering into the 2000s, India was once again searching for a winning formula once again under Sourav Ganguly. He, along with John Wright and a group of talented cricketers, was starting to form their legacy.

A crucial juncture to achieve that formula came in 2002 when they travelled to England- India’s first visit in six years to the country for a bilateral tour.

For the first time, the world was to see one of the most promising quartets in action- Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Ganguly and VVS Laxman- all in the same team.

Before the Tests, India was to play a format of ODI cricket popular then- a triangular tournament, this one involving England and Sri Lanka.

After a run that saw them lose only once to England, India was in the final facing the hosts yet again.

India’s bowling had been impressive in the leadup to this game, but on a blazing hot day in London, a flat pitch and boisterous crowd behind them proved too much to handle.

Centuries from Marcus Trescothick and Nasser Hussain meant the bowlers chased leather all afternoon, leaving India a mountain of 326 runs to climb to win the title.

The start

Ganguly had come into the game with not too many runs behind him, but this was Lords, it was Saturday- a venue and a setting where just over six years earlier, he had announced himself on the Test stage with a bang.

India needed him to get them off to a bang and how he turned up. With Virender Sehwag, he put on 106 runs in 15 overs, with the skipper leading the way with 60 runs in 43 balls.

Ganguly showed that day why Dravid once referred to him just second to God on the off side. It was an exhibition of strokeplay to behold.

Yet after he departed, a procession of a different kind struck India. Ganguly fell, Sehwag fell, Dinesh Mongia fell, Dravid fell and then, in perhaps after playing his most difficult innings of the tour, Tendulkar fell, bowled by Ashley Giles leaving India in the doldrums at 146–5.

The rebuild

Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif- members of the Indian team that had won the Under-19 World Cup 24 months ago, the former the Player of the Tournament and the latter the captain of the side, were chalk and cheese as characters.

But what they had shown in that competition was that under pressure, they could hang in there. Yuvraj, with Dravid, put on 131 undefeated runs for the fifth wicket in the team’s first match in the tournament in a chase of 272 runs.

The following day, Kaif made 38 valuable runs to help India complete a tricky chase against Sri Lanka. There was evidence, but this stage was different.

The pair began cautiously. They could afford to. The start meant India’s run-rate was fine, but the wickets column was the worry.

Mixing singles with the odd boundary, they began to get India back into the game and the shoulders on the field, high as a skyscraper a few overs ago, began to droop.

At 268–5, when it seemed like the tyros would march India to victory, Yuvraj fell, causing fear of yet another collapse through hardcore supporters.

But Kaif, showing a maturity beyond his age, combining with Harbhajan Singh first and then Zaheer Khan, provided the last thrill to an innings filled with oscillating emotions and took them home with three balls left, sending teammates and fans into delirium.

Ganguly took his shirt off, Yuvraj ran in with his pads on, and India celebrated like they hadn’t for a long time.

The legacy

Often, analysts recall matches of such magnitude and look at what impact it left on Indian cricket.

The Natwest Trophy final wasn’t a World Cup game. It wasn’t a game from the Champions Trophy. And yet, there is a fondness for the game, across former players, supporters when the 13th of July comes around.

The reason perhaps is that India, for the first time, showed they could win without the quartet of batsmen performing together in a winning cause.

Yuvraj and Kaif were players who would provide support for the big guns, but on this day, with the pressure on them, they showed they could deliver.

Another reason why this game lives on in memory is that it erased a lot of pain of losing multiple finals, around that time. India had lost nine finals coming into this one and victory in this one broke that unhappy streak thrillingly.

Whatever the reason, the Natwest Trophy final of 2002, remains a memorable moment of the Ganguly era. Like a bottle of fine wine, it never seems to get old.