Shoib Akhtar and magical moments

This blog first appeared in my old blog, http://balltempering.blogspot.com on 13 February, when India was touring Pakistan and was written in that context.

With Shoib not playing this oneday match and the news that he will not take any further part in the ongoing oneday series between India and Pakistan, it takes my mind to magical moments that have gotten imprinted on our collective minds.

There are some moments that get stuck in history and in ones conscious and define things from that moment onward in that respective feild. Some also get stuck in the national consciousness and form or help form the future course of actions.

There are few such moments in our cricketing history that have had a similar impact and have been stuck in our common consciousness and that has changed the national outlook of the country and how we perceive cricket. Shoib Akhtar had couple of such moments that have influenced many decisions and controversies after that, and obviously Shoib has been at the centre of them all.

The first such recognizable moment between India Pakistan games happened in April of 1986 in Sharjah, a game which India had bossed from the start and were the more obvious winners changed in spate of few seconds. Chetan Sharma bowls low full toss, in an effort to bowl a yorker, Javed Miandad makes room and puts it over deep midwicket boundary for a six to win the tournament and setting in motion a superiority that engulfed a full decade of matches between India & Pakistan. Waqar & Wasim created many a victory against the arch rival following that.

That Indian team could not shed that six out of its collective consciousness, or any Indian cricket follower for that matter, for the next 15 years or so.
Before that fateful afternoon, India and Pakistan had played 16 matches and India winning the majority of them, 9 to be precise, with win ratio of 60%, although, in seventies Pakistan One day side was much better, but from 83 world cup onwards, India hardly lost anything. From Australasia cup 1986 in Sharjah, with Miandads last ball win, the game and never say die attitude of Pakistan had such demoralizing effect on Indian team that in next ten year, they won only 10 games and actually just one in Sharjah.

Between 1986 and 2003, India and Pakistan played each other 78 times, all over the world, with Pakistan winning 47 times with four no results, a winning ratio of 60%. That was the impact one hit had on the collective psyche of the Indian team, India started to win more games after 1996 Banglore quarterfinal, turn around also happened after almost all the members of that 86 team were gone, except Azhar, and with Sachin coming up the order and with players like Ganguly and Jadeja India's fortunes in one dayers started to change especially in places like Toronto and Dhaka. But still they were beaten more often then not.

The next two moment came through two individuals involved in one day and a test match. Shoib Akhtar was a young rookie when Pakistan toured Indian in 1999, he played in the third test of the tour, classified as the first match of the Asian test championship. All through the tour he had been bragging that he will get Tendulkar, who at that time was at the peak of his game, 95 till 2000 was the most productive time of Tendulakr's career and he was at his most dominating and punishing self.

The game took became the deciding game of the tour, although classified as Asian test championship game rather then bilateral, but previous two tests had been one by each team, so the third game became a final of sorts. This was Shoib's first test against India and Pakistan had been bowled out for 185 on day one and India looked like taking a big lead, India were 147 for 2 when Shoib started his blistering run from closer to the boundary, packed Eden Garden noisy and full of anticipation, Rahul batting at 24 having spent 108 minutes at the crease and having faced 93 balls. Shoib runs in and balls a fast straight one, the ball crashes uproots Rahul's stumps, a wonderful Yorker. Although India has just lost a wicket but Eden Garden become even noisier, as this brings their genius to the wicket. This is what test cricket is all about, a young cocky pacer who has been bragging to his team mates that he will finish Tendulkar, full of confidence after taking a wicket and the best batsman in world at the top of his game, in his country in front of 100,000 spectators chanting his name.

The powerful, frightening, stamping run of Shoib starts again, Tendulkar looks up, bat lifts upwards in in its customary fashion, feed move just a little across the crease, heart pumping in anticipation the ball is hurled down by Shoib, Tendulkar goes back and across but the ball is too quick and in a flash the stumps are disturbed for the second time in two deliveries, the stadium goes absolutely silent, they can not believe that it has happened, their hero has to go back.

This was the first golden duck of Tendulkar's career, Pakistan went on to win that match by 46 runs, the last 7 wickets of the first innings lost for 76 runs. People rememberr this delivery and Tendulkar's running into Shoib accidentally in the second innings, that started a riot from this game, no one remembers the sublime 188 that Saeed scored with wickets going down around his and being the first Pakistani to carry his bat through in India, also Javagal Srinath taking 13 wickets in the match, 8 of them in the second innings, Shoib took 8 wickets in whole match, but the cast has been set. After that every India Pakistan game became Tendulkar-Shoib billing. This series was also the one where people started questioning Tendulkar's ability to win matches for India rather him taking on the responsibility of taking his team through when really needed, he dismissal in the first match of the series triggered a collapse that resulted in India loosing by 17 runs.

The next defining moment also involved these two, but this time Tendulkar came on top, well at least to the team cause. A broken and divided Pakistani team taking on India in Centurion, the occasion, as big as it gets, world cup. Pakistan needed to win this after their heart breaking loss to Australia & unexpected defeat to England. Team still full of talent albeit aging.

Pakistan has scored a defendable total of 273 with Saeed Anwar scoring his last century of his career. India open with Sehwag and Tendulkar, the original and his clone, Waqar decides to use Wasim and Shoib to open the bowling rather then taking the new ball himself, hoping for the magic again, well magic did happen, but Pakistan were on the receiving end. Second over of the innings, so far its settling the nerves and sizing each other up, no flashes of brilliance or foolishness.
Shoib runs in from the boundary, it take ages for him to reach the bowling crease, you can feel the tension in the air and nervous energy is running through both Tendulkar and Sehwag. Shoib pitches the ball short but little wide, Tendulkar gets under the ball and cuts it fiercely through point for six, and right there and then every one knew that something specials was going to happen. Suddenly India breathed easy, Tendulkar did not look back after that, he got his 50 of 37 balls and 98 of 75 balls, getting out to a fantastic ball from Shoib. The ghost has been buried, Shoib never looked threatening to Indians after that and they steam rolled Pakistan in next years' test and one day series. The aura of invincibility is gone and respect bordering fear, a result of personal inadequacies have been lifted as well, and did I tell you the clone also hit a similar six of Shoib and then took him to the cleaners in the next series, scoring the first triple century by an Indian in the process.