"You are lucky, it's me again. Fire away," declared Lou Vincent as he entered the press conference room after carving out a hundred against India in the second Test at Mohali on Thursday.
Those words are testimony to the confidence the Kiwi opener exudes following his 67 in the second innings of the first Test at Ahmedabad.
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Vincent is one of cricket's freakiest characters. He once had heart surgery five days before a Test match against England; was disciplined by his Board for talking to a journalist; punctured an airway in his lungs after an Andrew Caddick delivery hit him on the chest and almost missed a Test after a fan tackled him during a friendly game on the sands of Barbados and injured him.
Excluding him from the Test side against Sri Lanka earlier this year, he says, forced him to rebuild his game.
"I have every shot in the book. That only means that I have more ways of getting out. I would get to the twenties and thirties and then throw my wicket away.
"After I was dropped in Sri Lanka I spent time limiting my strokes. I was told that I was an opening batsman and could not play all my strokes like a number four or number five can. It paid off for me.
"And then I was told before the Indian tour that I was opening in the Tests. That was the best thing that happened to me," he said.
Vincent admitted that there was a lot of pressure on him opening in a Test in India, but worked hard and got his eye on what he described as a 'flat wicket' at Mohali.
"There was some grass on the wicket but it was flat. Some balls seamed, but we are used to that happening back home. We scored freely in the morning but slowed down again in the last session."
He described Anil Kumble as a very tight bowler who never gives anything away and praised Harbhajan Singh for the bounce and spin he gathers on the ball.
"You cannot take their [Kumble and Harbajan's] class away. We played them quite well though," he said.
Rating Thursday's innings as a "good one", he said the hundred he scored against Australia on debut was a dream and everything else pales in comparison.
"It is any Test debutant's dream to score a hundred against Australia in Australia. That first Test was invaluable. I spent five years in Australia and then to go back there and score a hundred against them was something else."
Vincent played a good part of his innings with the help of a runner after he inside-edged a delivery from Sachin Tendulkar on his knee.
"I was on a dead leg; just couldn't stand."
He agreed that winning the toss helped him get his century, "because the first two days are the best days for batting".
"I knew what to expect. India [the wicket] is flat, bakes under the sun and the spinners are at you all day.
"The sweep is a definite shot you need in India. Kumble bowls so fast through the air and Harbhajan has beautiful turn on the ball, so the sweep shot helps you cope with the spinners."
He joked that the Kiwis would need to set the Indian batters a target of a million runs, but added if the they can get a big score on the board they can put pressure on the Indian batters.
He praised Balaji for the pace he displayed and called Tendulkar "a cheeky bowler who didn't give much away".
