Free Playing It My Way: My Autobiography by Sachin Tendulkar Page A

could be eaten cold was a revelation to me!
    I was also amazed to see so many different types of cars. I have always had an interest in cars, though we didn’t own one at the time. Kailash Gattani had hired a luxury sedan and I was keen to find out as much as I could about the engineering details of these fascinating machines. Besides playing cricket, these were things that kept me occupied and I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity of exploring a foreign country. Visiting Lord’s, the mecca of world cricket, was a dream come true, and it all added to my ambition to play at such venues as a member of the Indian cricket team.
    In 1990, the tour started with a few first-class fixtures, which were followed by two one-day internationals. While I was in good form at the start of the tour and scored runs in the first-class games, I didn’t do so well in the first ODI at Leeds on 18 July, making only 19. Happily, it didn’t matter because the team won – thanks to the batting of Manjrekar and Azharuddin – and we had a chance of victory in the series if we won the next game at Nottingham on the 20th.
    In the second match England produced a better performance, batting first, with Robin Smith, the South African-born middle-order batsman, contributing 103 to their total of 281. We needed to bat really well to close out the series. When I went in to bat at number six we needed a further 145 off twenty overs. In those days, that was considered a stiff target. I scored a quick 31 off twenty-six balls and was dismissed with the score on 249, with 33 still needed to win, but we won the match and the series 2–0, with Azhar seeing us home with an unbeaten 63. It was a perfect start to the tour, giving us some welcome confidence going into the Test series.
First Test, Lord’s, 26–31 July 1990
    The first Test at Lord’s will always be remembered for Graham Gooch’s heroics with the bat. After being dropped on 33, he went on to make a triple hundred. He was eventually out for 333 and then produced another century in the second innings. For India, the highlights were Azhar’s hundred and Kapil Dev hitting four successive sixes off Eddie Hemmings, the off-spinner, to save the follow-on.
    My only significant contribution in the match was a catch off leg-spinner Narendra Hirwani’s bowling to dismiss England’s batting mainstay Allan Lamb in the second innings. It remains the most memorable catch of my career. Hirwani had beaten Lamb in the flight as he stepped out to hit straight down the ground. Despite failing to get to the pitch of the ball, Lamb went through with the shot and the ball went high into the air, looking as if it was going to land some 25 yards behind the bowler.
    As soon as Lamb hit the shot, I started sprinting from my position at long off. There was very little chance that I would make it, because I had been positioned a few yards wide of the conventional long-off position. It was only during the last few steps that I realized I had an outside chance. I had covered a distance of more than 25 yards and was still short. I could dive forward, but I knew I would not have enough control to catch the ball. The other option was to carry on sprinting and try somehow to get a hand to the ball, which was dying on me. I chose the second option and to my surprise felt the ball land in my fully outstretched right hand at knee height.
    Having completed the catch, I threw the ball up in the air in sheer ecstasy. My team-mates were naturally delighted. Hirwani rushed to congratulate me and I felt thrilled at having pulled it off. The crowd appreciated the athletic effort and I vividly remember the warm applause as I walked back to my fielding position. The key to taking catches like these, it seems to me, is not to be afraid of taking the initiative and deciding quickly, while always keeping an eye on the trajectory of the ball.
    We lost the Lord’s Test by the huge margin of 247 runs and needed to tighten our game before the