Kumble bowled 14 overs straight and got the wicket of Lara despite a broken jaw.
Many remember the 2002 India tour of the West Indies and specifically the Antigua Test. The match saw India batting first and posting 513/9 declared with VVS Laxman scoring 130 and Ajay Ratra making 115*. Rahul Dravid made 91 and Wasim Jaffer had scored 86 runs as well.
In response, West Indies scored 629/9d with Carl Hooper, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, and Ridley Jacobs scoring centuries.
Anil Kumble had been hit on his jaw by a Mervin Dillon bouncer and despite completing his innings, he was rushed to the hospital, where the scans showed that he has broken his jaw, which was wired shut.
However, the most memorable moment of the match came Kumble decided to get his jaw bandaged citing the importance of Brian Lara’s wicket and ultimately got him out LBW in the 14 overs he bowled with a broken jaw, while getting his bandaged tightened on the boundary ropes in between overs.
“I told my wife, Chetna and I called her up. When we spoke, I said, look I know I have to come home because I just need surgery. So, she arranged for all of that in Bangalore. …And as I dropped off the call, I just told her that look I’ll go and bowl, but she thought probably I was just joking,” Kumble reminisced during an interview with JioCinema.
“I don’t think she even took it seriously. What’s he saying?”, he added.
The former India captain said even after breaking his jaw he felt it was his responsibility to get some wickets for the team.
“So, when I went back to the dressing room, I saw Sachin bowling because he was the only guy in the team who could bowl and then Wavell Hinds, I think was playing I don’t remember somebody else was batting.
And I thought it was my chance. I have to go and get a couple of wickets. If we can get West Indies three or four down, end of day two or three. I think if you can get them out, then maybe, we have a chance to win the game. That was the only thought.
“So, I told Andrew Leipus – get me out there. At least I can now go home with the thought that I tried my best,” Kumble added.
He spat out blood but batted on for another 20 minutes in that Test which was played more than two decades ago.
Asked about the toughest batters he had bowled to during his illustrious career, he picked Lara, Saeed Anwar, Jacques Kallis, and Aravinda de Silva among others.
“Well, I think it was good that most of them were a part of my team. Imagine bowling at Sachin, Rahul, Saurav, Viru, Laxman, all these guys in a match. It would have been a nightmare. Jokes apart had some wonderful batters whom I bowled against,” he said.
“Aravinda de Silva was a tough one and Brian Lara – he probably had three shots to every ball and he would change. You would think that you’ve got him. You’d feel that you’ve deceived it and then suddenly you play a shot, which you can’t imagine and when you know that he’s come forward, you have beaten him, and then he would just use the pace and then late cut for four and that was his quality.
“I think in every series, you sort of encounter a couple of tough guys who sort of are difficult. Jacques Kallis was someone who never, ever gave away his wicket. Inzi (Inzamam-Ul-Haq) was tough.
Then I mean some of the left-handers were really – Hayden was someone who was imposing. We knew that getting him out LBW was out of the equation,” Kumble added.
(PTI inputs)