‘Ham bhi khelne aaye hain’ – Yuvraj Singh recalls the instance on how Mohammad Kaif responded to Ganguly’s gesture in NatWest final

Yuvraj Singh, the former Indian all-rounder recently involved in a candid live session on social media with his former teammate Mohammad Kaif. During the interaction, the duo discussed several topics related to their international career. In the meantime, Yuvraj recalled a hilarious incident from the 2002 NatWest Series final between India and England that was won by India on the back of some fine knocks played by him and Kaif.

In 2002 NatWest series final, Team India was asked to chase a mammoth total of 325 runs in stipulated 50 overs. During the chase, at one point the visitors were struggling at a score of 146 runs for a loss of five wickets. The spectators also began leaving the ground as they thought that there was no way that Team India can win the match. However, Mohammad Kaif and Yuvraj Singh made the impossible-looking task possible.

Yuvraj Singh recalls an incident from 2002 NatWest series final

The duo stitched an important partnership of 121 runs for the sixth wicket and brought their side back into the game. In that game, Yuvraj was smashing runs against the bowlers in a comfortable fashion in comparison to Kaif. But, the former was dismissed by Paul Collingwood in the 42nd over of the match. At that time, the Men in Blue still needed 59 runs to win and Mohammad Kaif took the responsibility on his shoulders to make his side win that match.

He didn’t lose his nerves in the crucial situation of the game and played quite sensibly with the tailenders. In the end, he managed to win a memorable game for Team India on the back of his unbeaten match-winning knock of 87 runs.

Yuvraj Singh recalled an incident from the same match and asked Kaif if he remembers what he said to him after smacking a six just after Ganguly’s gesture from the dressing room. To which, the latter replied that he couldn’t remember exactly what he said. Afterwards, Yuvraj revealed that you came to me and said, “Bhai, ham bhi khelne aaye hain. (bro, I am also here to play).”

Actually, in that match, Yuvraj was looking pretty comfortable as he was scoring runs against England bowlers with ease. Meanwhile, Kaif was finding it a bit difficult to score runs. So, in one of the overs, Sourav Ganguly gave a signal to Kaif, who was on the strike, to just take single and give the strike to Yuvraj. But, Kaif had some other plans and he went for a big six on the very next delivery.