Birthday boy Fleming recalls April 24, 1998

Former Australia swing bowler Damien Fleming, who shares his birthday with Sachin Tendulkar, remembers the time when they played on April 24. The star Indian received the cheers while he got booed in Sharjah, 1998

What's it like to share one's birthday with Sachin Tendulkar? Ask former Aussie bowler Damien Fleming, who bowled to the batting legend in 20 one-day internationals and three Tests in the late 1990s.

"Anything associated with Tendulkar in a cricketing sense is a positive. I played a lot of cricket against him, especially the one-day variety. He was the best batsman I got an opportunity to bowl at. That we were born on the same day is quite a coincidence," Fleming told SUNDAY MiD DAY.

Fleming and Tendulkar figured in the Coca-Cola Cup final at Sharjah in 1998 on their birthday.

Here's the anecdote: "I remember it flashing up on the screen that it was Sachin's birthday when he was smashing us on the field. When the game was about to end, it flashed up, 'Happy birthday, Damien Fleming', and there is nothing like being booed by 30,000-40,000 people really to make it special," said Fleming with a chuckle.

India and Australia clashed frequently in 1998, starting with the Test series in India. Six one-day internationals were held in the month of April.

"I don't remember many other Indian batsmen getting a lot of runs against us in Sharjah, 1998 but we just couldn't get Sachin out. He was unbelievable," said Fleming, stressing that the experience helped his bowling.

"I improved as a bowler. It's alright to get wickets on a seaming Melbourne Cricket Ground wicket or swinging conditions in Perth, but can you compete and bowl well in conditions where it is slower and lower? You have to work on changing your pace and reverse swing. In 1998, I remember bowling pretty well and Tendulkar blocking good balls. Once in every over, with the ring field in one-day cricket, he just hit through the line. If it didn't go for six, it went for four. You have got to be at the top of your level to be able to compete with Tendulkar."

Fleming's first big stage battle against India was during the 1996 World Cup game in Mumbai. Tendulkar scored 90 before being stumped by Ian Healy off Mark Waugh in an unsuccessful run chase. It was a game where Fleming, making a comeback after a shoulder reconstruction, bagged five wickets but he could not dislodge Tendulkar.

"It was swinging around for me. I had got Ajay Jadeja and Vinod Kambli and Tendulkar let me go a bit because it was swinging. I bowled a ball at probably middle and leg and it was a bit of a half volley. But it was swinging and Tendulkar just on-drove it at about 150mph. It went like a gunshot. We wouldn't have won that match had it not been for Tendulkar's dismissal and I don't know if we would have made the World Cup final had we not won that game." Two days before that Sharjah final, Tendulkar played, in the opinion of many experts, his finest one-day innings (143 off 131 balls, 9x4, 5x6), also known as the sandstorm innings. Fleming said that Tendulkar was more sedate before the storm hit Sharjah, but once he resumed battle, the little Indian was near unstoppable. It was Fleming who ended Tendulkar's charge towards an against-all-odds win, but India qualified for the final all the same.

"Yeah, I got him out (caught by wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist) but I think he got tired from hitting me around. He was not ready to go and I got a bit pumped up, angry and started saying things. He quite rightly waited for the umpire's decision to see whether it was above shoulder height."

Tendulkar ultimately 'walked'. India might have ended up losers, but it was a perfect dress rehearsal for the final played on the pair's birthday. Fleming's birthday too, remember! "We had a few close leg before wicket calls and then he was given out lbw to Kasper (Michael Kasprowicz for 134). It was a terrible decision." said the 1970-born fast bowler-turned-coach and commentator, who has worked with bowlers at the Australian Cricket Academy post retirement.

Fleming, the bowlologist
Fleming will soon launch a web-based coaching programme called Bowlology. His twitter account is calledu00a0 @bowlologist.

"I am happy to help someone in Sydney with his out-swinger or with his slower ball/bouncer in the middle of Mumbai. I think we tend to take cricket too seriously at times, so we want to have a bit of a laugh as well," he said.u00a0

He signed off with a birthday message to the batting master: "I want to wish the birthday boy all the best and, like he did in Sharjah many moons ago, I hope he celebrates his birthday with a hundred. The best thing about it is, he won't be scoring it againstu00a0my bowling."

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