Former India fast bowler, Venkatesh Prasad recalled India’s successful bowl out against Pakistan during the inaugural edition of the T20 World Cup in 2007, saying that the Indian players had gone through the rules and regulations of the tournament and hence, they were practicing bowl out in nets. During a recent chat with R Ashwin on his YouTube channel, Prasad said nobody expected that India’s first game in the 2007 T20 World Cup will have a bowl out.
Recalling the same, Venkatesh Prasad said, “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. 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.”
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India and Pakistan locked horns in the league states before fighting for the title in the T20 World Cup final. After opting to bowl, Pakistan gave away 141 and the match ended in a tie as Shoaib Malik and his men also finished with 141 in 20 overs. In the bowl out, India used only 1 bowler — Harbhajan Singh as they decided to go with Virender Sehwag and Robin Uthappa.
On the other hand, Pakistan began with Yasir Arafat and used Umar Gul and Shahid Afridi and all of them failed. India won the bowl out 3-0 after all three India cricketers crashed ball on to the stumps while Pakistan bowlers missed all three.
Talkin about the bowl-out, Venkatesh Prasad said, “You go through those net sessions a day in and day 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.”
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He further recalled, “Nobody expected that our very first match will have a bowl-out. It was a tight game. 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.”
