The dressing room resembled a funeral: Kuruvilla

MUMBAI: India's capitulation for merely 81, which took all of 35.5 overs, chasing 120, in the third Test against West Indies at Barbados in 1997 left not just skipper Sachin Tendulkar but the entire team devastated. TOI spoke to two members of that team who actually did well in that game, but were left dejected after India blew it away .
Seamers Venkatesh Prasad and Abey Kuruvilla took 14 wickets between them at Bridgetown, but ended up on the losing side due to the non performance of their star-studded batting line-up.
Recalling the 'nightmare' 17 years later, Kuruvilla, who was on his first tour, still remembers how down and out Tendulkar, and the entire Indian team was after the game.
"Sachin was so confident that we would win. He was really upset after that match. He was someone who would give his 200 per cent to the team, so it was understandable. He sat alone for a long time, and looked in absolute disbelief. The whole atmosphere in our dressing room that day, in fact, resembled that of a funeral. There was pin-drop silence." Kuruvilla reminisced.
"Even though the wicket was uneven, 120 was hardly a big total to chase, especially considering that we had such a strong batting line-up. There was a man doing some voodoo in the stands during our chase, but I don't believe in such stuff !" the Mumbai seamer added.
Prasad felt that while the wicket was tough to deal with, India would have still got home had the batsmen planned the chase better. "It wasn't an easy wicket to bat, but it was more difficult to bat at one end than the other. At one end, it was keeping low or climbing up, while on the other, it was a fantastic wicket to bat on. All the batsmen had to do was understand the nature of the pitch, and take chances from the end where the wicket was easier.
They needed to strategise better, and I think Sachin was disappointed about that," reminisced Prasad.
Kuruvilla still rues a few "rough decisions" that did India in during that game. "Both Sachin and Rahul Dravid were adjudged out off no balls once each during the Test. In the first innings, one such decision really hurt us because both were batting really well and could have ensured a big lead for us.
Before that, I had trapped Shivnaraine Chanderpaul plumb in front of the wicket.That ball would have hit the middle stump, but he escaped and went on to score an unbeaten 137," he said.