Legendary Pakistan bowler Wasim Akram has on Saturday (May 23) recalled how his plan failed to deny India’s spin great Anil Kumble a record ten-wicket haul – the feat hasn’t been repeated in international cricket so far in the 1999 Test at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in New Delhi.
Kumble had wreaked havoc on the Pakistan batting-line-up to pick all 10 wickets in the 2nd innings of the Kotla Test to seal a famous win over Wasim and his brigade in 1999 as well as created history in the game of cricket by becoming the first and the only Indian bowler so far to achieve the feat.
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He is also only the second bowler in the Test cricket history after England’s Jim Laker in 1956 Test against Australia to take all 10 wickets in an innings.
Chasing a near-impossible 420 target in the second innings to take a 2-0 lead in the Test series, Pakistan were comfortably placed at 101/0 with openers Shahid Afridi and Saeed Anwar going all guns blazing before Kumble started to wreak havoc on the visitors with his spin magic.
Well, Kumble first removed Afridi for 41, then Ijaz Ahmed for a duck and Inzamam-ul-Haq a few overs later to expose their middle-order and then rolled over the Pakistan batting line-up by taking all nine wickets at Kotla. Now, the historical feat is just one wicket away from the former India captain, but Akram didn’t want to lose his wicket to Kumble in a bid to deny him achieve the feat.
Pakistan were 198 for 9 when Akram and Waqar Younis were at the crease and made plan with the latter to play him normal cricket, but eventually then captain himself got caught to enable Kumble to achieve remarkable and historical achievement in the game of cricket.
There were rumors that Javagal Srinath attempted to bowl wide of the batsmen to deny Kumble to get the 10th wicket, while Akram and Younis both also wanted to get out to another bowler, but the former Pakistan captain dismissed the claims during the latest interview with Aakash Chopra.
Wasim told Chopra on his YouTube channel, “No. This is against the sportsman’s spirit (desperately getting out to another bowler). I said to Waqar Younis that you play normal cricket, I will not get out to Anil Kumble. As a captain, I told Waqar to play his normal game and go for shots against (Javagal) Srinath.”
The legendary bowler further added, “The first ball Kumble bowled… inside edge… and I got caught. It was a big day for India and Kumble. It was massive.”
(With Hindustan Times Inputs)
