That battle against Shane Warne!

As the cricketing world continues to mourn the passing of legendary legspinner Shane Warne a unique batch of Mumbai cricketers recalled their special encounter with the Aussie in the buildup to Indiarsquos 199798 home Test seriesThough India outclassed Mark Taylorrsquos visiting Australians winning the Test series 21 in March it was actually the Mumbai team that put the visitors on the back foot a few weeks earlier A Sachin Tendulkarled Mumbai thrashed the Australians by 10 wickets just after lunch on Day Three of the threeday warmup game at the Brabourne Stadium Mumbai in February 1998The Mumbai team which beat Australia in a warmup tie at Brabourne Stadium in February 1998 Picmidday archiveslsquoSpecific planrsquoThen Mumbai head coach Balvinder Singh Sandhu recalled how Tendulkar initiated the game plan against the illustrious Warne ldquoSachin had a specific plan in mind and he told all the players to attack Warne On the Indian wickets Warne was the only Aussie bowler who could trouble our batsmen So instead of being defensive against him Sachin advised the boys to be positive and to ensure that they were not done in by Warnersquos reputation I believe the manner in which Mumbairsquos firstclass players defeated Australia in twoandhalf days gave a lot of confidence to the Indian batsmen thereafterrdquo Sandhu told midday on TuesdayBlitz at BrabourneBatting first thanks to Michael Slaterrsquos 98 and Ricky Pontingrsquos 53 the Aussies declared their first innings at 3058 Leftarm spinner Rajesh Pawar claimed 359 while another leftarm spinner Nilesh Kulkarni and offspinner Rajesh Sutar picked up two scalps each Thereafter everyone knows how Tendulkar smashed Warne across the length and breadth of the park scoring an unbeaten 204 off 192 balls 25x4 2x6 However it was young opener Amit Pagnis 50 off 60 balls 9x4 then just 20 who was the first to execute Tendulkarrsquos plan ldquoDuring our meeting on the eve of the match Sachin and Sanjay Manjrekar told us not to give Warne any unnecessary respect I dispatched his first ball a flighted legspinner over covers for four I think I scored 21 or 22 runs off his first two overs Their captain Taylor took Warne off the attack after those two overs and brought him back only after I got out But I must admit that some of his deliveries were unplayable And when I reached my 50 with a latecut boundary Warne looked at me smile and said lsquowell playedrsquordquo recalled lefthander Pagnis 43Sutar the slayerSutar 54 who took three wickets in the game and scored 43ball 45 6x4 1x6 revealed how Tendulkar helped him counter Warnersquos sledging ldquoWarne was a very aggressive cricketer and sledged a lot while bowling I remember when I square cut one of his flippers to the boundary he immediately adjusted his sleeves and bowled a beamer next ball and looked straight into my eyes I just tapped the ball away and avoided looking at him Thatrsquos something Sachin had told me after the previous delivery not to look into his eyesrdquo said SutarWarne went wicketless conceding 111 runs off his 16 overs as Mumbai amassed 4106 declared The Aussies were then bundled out for just 135 in the second essay as Kulkarni had five for 23 in just 135 overs Mumbai openers Pagnis 8 not out and Sulakshan Kulkarni 21 not out completed the formalities of chasing the target of 31 in 53 oversIndia benefitted tooldquoThe plan to attack Warne worked well as it not only benefited the Mumbai team but also the Indian team The message for Team Indiarsquos senior batsmen was clear that if you attack Warne you can prevent him from dominating you Itrsquos definitely one of the reasons Team India dominated the Test seriesrdquo Sandhu remarkedWarne managed just 10 wickets from the three Tests while Tendulkar piled on 446 runs and got the Man of the Series award