Piyush Chawla recalls how he got Sachin Tendulkar out 15 years ago
Indian leg-spinner Piyush Chawla spoke about how he cleaned up the god of Indian cricket, Sachin Tendulkar, in a Challenger Trophy game back in 2005 when he was a 16-year-old and a newbie on the scene.
Piyush Chawla has played a lot of domestic cricket and also was a part of the Indian team that won the T20 World Cup in 2007 and the ODI World Cup in 2011. He also won twin titles with the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL.
But how did he felt after getting the Little Master out with a googly from round the wicket still remains the question most asked to him.
Piyush Chawla revealed that he had nothing to lose so he did not take much pressure about bowling to Sachin Tendulkar and that's what helped him bowl that magical delivery. He was excited about bowling to Tendulkar and that excitement meant that there was no room for any nerves.
“So, as a bowler when you start from your run-up, you think about what you exactly want to bowl. On that particular one, I don’t know what exactly happened. When I started off from my run-up, that too bowling inside the field restrictions, I thought I will bowl a normal leg-spin from the leg stump going away from him. To be very honest, I still don’t know – it’s almost 16 years now. I don’t know what came to my mind and I just bowled a wrong ‘un,” Piyush Chawla said on Arun Venugopal's YouTube channel.
Tendulkar isn't a man who forgets things quickly: Piyush Chawla
However, like any other great batsman, Sachin Tendulkar took Piyush Chawla to the cleaners the next time he faced him. But Piyush Chawla was not at all ashamed by it as Sachin Tendulkar had taken down great bowlers like Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, etc. in the past.
“People remember that I had got paaji out in that fashion. Paaji (Tendulkar), too, isn’t a man who forgets things quickly. The very next year, again in a Challenger Trophy game in Chennai, paaji smashed me around for 20 runs in my first over (chuckles)! That’s what I was saying: if paaji hits me around, it’s not a big deal. Paaji has smashed so many bowlers, which is why people don’t remember this (particular caning),” Piyush Chawla asserted.