Delhi: The score card of the Test between New Zealand and West Indies in Christchurch will never adequately describe West Indies’ efforts to escape from almost certain defeat in this Test. With the help of the batting of Justin Greaves, Shai Hope and Kemar Roach to save the Test, West Indies made the highest score in the fourth innings of the Test in more than 80 years. Greaves scored an unbeaten double century and this was an innings which made Greaves’ name famous in the entire cricket world.

Greaves’ memorable innings in Christchurch Test

The target of victory for West Indies was 531 runs and on the last morning they were at 212/4. By the time of the last session of the day, Greaves was very tired, he had leg cramps for which the physio came to the ground several times, but Greaves continued playing. In the end, this batsman, who became the player of the match, did not give away his wicket even after playing 388 balls in 564 minutes and scored 202*. On one hand, batsmen are forgetting Test temperament batting, on the other hand, Greaves showed how to bat in Tests. What could be better than this for a cricketer playing only his 12th Test?

Do you know whom Greaves thanked first for his incredible efforts? Greaves was giving up playing cricket. This Indian not only stopped him but also put his cricket on the right path, this is Siddharth Lahiri who is the Chief of International Player Development of IPL team Rajasthan Royals and Performance Development Coach of Royals Group.

Indian coach Siddharth Lahiri changed Greaves’ thinking

Justin Greaves might never have played this historic innings because he was leaving cricket in 2022. It was Siddharth Lahiri who stopped him and helped him take the decision to continue playing. When Siddharth Lahiri was working as an assistant-cum-batting coach for the same group team, Barbados Royals, in the CPL, Justin Greaves was in the team. There Siddharth Lahiri got a chance to work closely with Greaves.

Greaves’ strong defense and calm nature helped him in playing this classic Test innings. This is the focus that Siddharth Lahiri taught him, at that time Greaves was neither in the West Indies cricket team nor was getting a full opportunity in the Caribbean Premier League. Then Siddharth Lahiri not only worked on his cricket but also on his mental thinking.

Siddharth got special training done

Siddharth Lahiri would send him training drills, motivate him and tell him about the opportunities in the West Indies team, especially how he could become a regular in the Test team. It was September 22, 2022 when Greaves promised Siddharth Lahiri that now he would focus only on cricket. With this everything started changing. Greaves remained in constant touch with him. Even in the Test we are talking about, after the end of the fourth day’s play, Greaves spoke to Siddharth Lahiri and he told him about ball-focusing drills. With this everything became easier.

Justin Greaves relying on Siddharth Lahiri’s advice is nothing new. After scoring an unbeaten fifty in the second innings of the two-Test series in India in October this year, Greaves had also given credit to Siddharth Lahiri for this. It was only because of Greaves that India could not win the Test by an innings and the match dragged on till the last day.