Deep Backward Point

Nine years ago, today. My favorite one-day of them all:

And at 146 for 5 chasing 326 for victory, with Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid all back in the pavilion, the contest was as good as over. But nobody, it seemed, had bothered to inform Mohammad Kaif and Yuvraj Singh (combined age 41).

This was the game that made me believe. Believe that a new era had, indeed, begun. That the ’90s were over. That India could chase. That India could bat deep. That India, who had never made a 300+ score until 1996 (after even Zimbabwe), could make it look easy.

That India could win.