Shoaib Akhtar burst onto the international cricket scene in 1997 and made quite a splash with his lightning-quick speed and attitude on the field. He surprised everyone with his ability to bowl brutal yorkers and hit batters with bouncers.
He got onto the world stage and had his first moment of fame during the 1999 Asian Test Championship, particularly in a Test at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
The match, which is remembered for Saeed Anwar’s brilliant 188* and Javagal Srinath’s 13-wicket haul, featured a moment, which led to Shoaib Akhtar becoming a household name.
Akhtar had stunned the crowd in silence when he clean bowled Rahul Dravid in India’s first innings with an amazing yorker for 24 runs as India was replying to Pakistan’s total of 185 runs. Next came Sachin Tendulkar and everyone anticipated a good battle between him and Akhtar.
But Akhtar shushed the crowd as he bowled another yorker, which leveled the middle stump of Tendulkar, handing him his only first-ball duck dismissal in Test cricket.
Talking about the same on 'The Vaughny and Tuffers Cricket Club podcast', Shoaib Akhtar said: "My claim to fame came when I bowled Sachin Tendulkar off the first ball.”
Akhtar further added how he wanted to meet the Indian batting star before the Test match and tell him that he would want to get him out but when the former Pakistan speedster saw Tendulkar, he thought the former India captain 'had no chance' against him.
"I went up to many Indian cricketers and said 'I want to see the God of cricket.' They said 'don't you know him?' I said 'No, I want to see him because I want to bowl him out off the first ball.' So, Sachin, the nicest guy on the planet, the greatest batsman... I went up to him, looked at him, checked him out and said 'Brother, you have no chance against me'. So, I bowled him first ball," Akhtar added.
Here is the video:
The Test also featured another incident involving Tendulkar and Akhtar, where Sachin got run out due to colliding with the Pakistani pacer, as the throw from the fielder hit the stumps directly. It resulted in riots in the Eden Gardens stands and ultimately police lathi charged the crowd.
Tendulkar and Jagmohan Dalmiya had to come and pacify the crowd for play to resume. The tension continued to the final day of the Test match.
Akhtar speaks about the incident and says: "First time in the history of cricket, 70-80 thousand people were evacuated. The Test match was delayed by two hours because of me. The match was being played in front of close to 100 thousand and now suddenly there was nobody."
