Will Haine- 10 wickets for Kumble 10 years ago
Feb 05 2010 - 21:47:32
Wasim Akram – caught VVS Laxman bowled Anil Kumble, 37. On its own this seems like a wholly unremarkable statistic. But when the three words "bowled Anil Kumble" appear nine other times on a scorecard, then that is something truly momentous.
On February 7th 1999, India's Anil Kumble became only the second man in the history of international cricket to take all 10 wickets in an innings. And to make it all the more impressive he did it to win a Test match against India's fiercest of rivals - Pakistan – a feat they had not managed for over 20 years.
Wasim Akram's side had won in the first match of the two Test series, so India had to win in Delhi in order to avoid an unthinkable defeat on home soil against their greatest enemy. The first morning at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium got off to a heartening start for India, as captain Mohammad Azharuddin won the toss and elected to bat.
The opening pair of VVS Laxman and Sadagoppan Ramesh then started the innings in positive fashion, making a partnership of 88 before Laxman was bowled by Akram. Ramesh and the prized-wicket of Sachin Tendulkar then fell in quick succession, before Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly both briefly rallied alongside an un-fazed Azharuddin.
The final four wickets then fell for just 12 runs as India collapsed to 252 all out. It was evident even at this early stage of the match that spin would play a key part in the outcome, as seven wickets fell to the bowling of Saqlain Mushtaq and Mushtaq Ahmed. Saqulain picked up his third consecutive five-wicket haul after a match winning performance in the first Test in Chennai.
India's spin duo were also to be in the thick of the action when they got their chance, as Kumble and Harbhajan Singh also claimed seven wickets between them as they bowled their side into a commanding lead. Shahid Afridi was Pakistan’s top scorer with 32 as they crumbled to a meagre 172 – 80 runs behind.
The pitch was beginning to look slightly suspect, but India managed to reach an impressive score, considering the conditions, of 339 in their second innings. Ramesh fell four runs short of a deserved century, while Ganguly was unbeaten on 62 and paceman Javagal Srinath scored an important 49 as they shared a 100 run stand.
Saqlain added another five wickets to an impressive series tally and, after three innings of the Test, 21 of the 30 wickets to fall had done so to spin bowling. Pakistan were set the task of scoring a record 420 to win the Test, but they knew that a draw was enough to earn them a series victory.
And, despite the success of the slow bowlers in the first three innings, nobody could have predicted what was to come in the fourth. Afridi and Saeed Anwar set a good platform in Pakistan’s pursuit to save the match as the openers reached 101 without loss.
Kumble had bowled six overs on the fourth morning from the Football Stand End, but Afridi and Anwar were watchful enough to negate the threat of the leg-spinner. After the lunch interval, the moustachioed bowler began to operate from the Pavilion End, and the move soon paid dividends when Afridi feathered a catch to Nayan Mongia behind the stumps.
It was the breakthrough that India so desperately needed, and Kumble was at it again when he trapped Ijaz Ahmed lbw with his very next ball. Inzamam-ul-Haq averted the hat-trick, but he faced only 13 more deliveries before he played onto his own stumps. Yousuf Youhana became Kumble’s fourth victim when he was lbw for a golden duck, but the bowler failed again to get a hat-trick as he was thwarted by Moin Khan.
The Pakistan wicketkeeper then occupied the crease for almost half an hour for his three runs, and his stay was ended when Ganguly took a low catch in the slips. India knew that, so long as Anwar remained in the middle, Pakistan were still in with a chance.
So it was vital to the host's victory charge that they removed the opener, and Kumble ended his two and a half hour stay when he was caught at bat pad by Laxman. Pakistan were now teetering on 128-6, and Kumble had astonishingly taken all the wickets to fall for just 15 runs in 44 balls.
"That was the moment when I thought all ten could be mine," the bowler later reflected. Tea was taken with India within touching distance of levelling the series. It was a break that Pakistan so desperately needed and, somewhat surprisingly, so did Kumble: "I was getting tired. I had bowled non-stop in the second session. The tea break came at the right time," he admitted.
Saleem Malik and Akram then did a sterling job of frustrating the Indians after the interval; adding a battling 58 runs together. But Kumble was battling harder for a seventh scalp, and it was Malik who finally succumbed when he was bowled attempting an ambitious pull shot. The wiry leg-break master then continued his demolition job by dismissing the Pakistan spin wizards of Mushtaq Ahmed and Saqlain in consecutive balls – the former caught at gully and the latter lbw.
But Kumble's third crack at a hat-trick had to wait until his next over, and seamer Srinath, sensing history, chose to bowl a wayward line his in order to give Kumble the chance of writing himself into the record books. He wasn’t to do it with a hat-trick, though, or with the ball after that. Then with his third ball of the over, a regulation leg-break, he induced an edge from Akram, with the ball finding its way into the hands of Laxman at short leg.
Unrivalled scenes of elation followed both in the crowd and out in the middle, as Kumble was carried off on the shoulders of his team-mates. His figures read 26.3-9-74-10, and he finished with match figures of 14-149. The only other person to achieve the feat was Jim Laker 43 years earlier, when he took all 10 Australian wickets at Old Trafford for 53 runs, and incredible match figures of 19-90. Kumble retired in 2008 after a brief spell as India's captain, and with 619 Test wickets to his name – third on the all time list behind only Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne.
