Shoaib Akhtar: “So, Sachin, being a nice, greatest guy on the planet Earth, greatest batsman… I went up to him, looked at him, checked him out and said ‘Brother, you have no chance against me'”
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Legendary Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar recalled telling iconic India batsman Sachin Tendulkar that he had “no chance” of surviving against his bowling.
Akhtar, to this day, holds the record for the fastest ball ever bowled in international cricket at 161.3 kph (100.2 mph).
He made the remark to Tendulkar during the 1999 Test match between India and Pakistan at Eden Gardens in Kolkata, which the men in green won by 46 runs.
In the first innings of that classic encounter, Akhtar ended up clean bowling the ‘Little Master’ for a golden duck.
Brilliant story from @shoaib100mph about bowling @sachin_rt first ball … !! #Paksitan #India @TelegraphSport pic.twitter.com/EJpg8Tplez
— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) December 7, 2022
“So, Sachin, being a nice, greatest guy on the planet Earth, greatest batsman… I went up to him, looked at him, checked him out and said ‘Brother, you have no chance against me’. So, I got him out on the first ball in Kolkata. First time ever happened in the history of cricket,” the Rawalpindi Express told former England captain Michael Vaughan in an interview for Telegraph Sport as quoted by NDTV.
“Because of me he got out on the first ball. Because of me that he got run out. Because of the 70000-80000 people needed to be evacuated from the Kolkata Stadium. First time the match was delayed, the test match was delayed for two hours. First time in history, the match was played under 100,000 people and now there is nobody, and I was bowling.”