Eight years ago, two South Africans came together to earn their side a memorable win over in a Test match here at the Wankhede. Call it mere coincidence or destiny that the same pair of batsmen joined the forces to script Bangalore's Royal Challengers' win over Mumbai Indians here on Sunday night.
Mark Boucher and Jacques Kallis added 55 runs for the fifth wicket to ensure that Bangalore side came out with flying colours. "I actually reminded him (Boucher) of that," admitted a beaming Rahul Dravid in his post match comments.
"In fact we were just discussing that when we came here for the first nets. I told him how he and Kallis finished the game off with some big hitting. I think he has some good memories of this ground in finishing games," remarked Dravid referring to man-of-the-match Boucher.
The Challengers' skipper felt that youngsters' role will increasingly gain importance in shaping team's fortunes in the Twenty20 tournament. "I think as the tournament goes on the youngsters or the less experienced ones, as I would like to call them, will have a big say in the tournament. They will keep doing better," he thought.
The right-hander, however, maintained that the youngsters should be given time to prove themselves. "To be fair to them they haven't played in front such big crowd and you can't expect them to come and do well straightaway. They have got the ability and once they get used to the atmosphere, they will do well. We know that if we are going to do well in this tournament they have to play a big role in it," he explained.
Intimidating
Boucher was of the opinion that the crowd was intimidating, but his experience of playing here helped him a lot. "I think when you are in India it is quite intimidating. But I have played here before. I have said this before that the crowd here is bit like football crowd," he stated.
Earlier, Mumbai Indians skipper Harbhajan Singh was flummoxed by a scribe, who told the Punjab bowler about his mother fixing his marriage. An amused Harbhajan asked: "Kiske saath (with whom)"?
