While Sachin Tendulkar is famously hailed as the 'God of Cricket' in India, legendary fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar too is called the 'Rawalpindi Express' for the pace he brought to the crease.
And both the cricketing greats were involved in some thrilling battles on the field during their playing careers. In a recent interview, Akhtar candidly spoke about the third Test during India's tour to Pakistan in 2006 where he intentionally tried to hit Sachin and not dismiss him.
"I'm revealing this for the first time. I intentionally wanted to hit Sachin in that Test match. I was determined that I had to wound Sachin in that Test at any cost.
“Inzamam kept telling that bowl in front of the wickets, but I wanted to hit Sachin. So I hit him on his helmet and I felt he was done. But when I watched the video, I saw Sachin had managed to save his head,” Akhtar told Sportskeeda.
However, Akhtar confessed that while his own attempts continued to wound Sachin, Pakistan bowler Mohammad Asif was turning out to be a nightmare for Indian batters with a solid display of skills and pace.
"I again tried to injure him. But on other side, Indian batting was facing music in the shape of Asif. I had rarely seen anyone bowl as good as the way Asif bowled on that particular day,” he added.
India lost the match by a whopping 341 runs and Pakistan reigned over the series with a 1-0 win.
In the first innings, Tendulkar was dismissed for 23 runs (in 29 balls) by Abdul Razzaq and sent back to the pavillion on 26 (47) in the second innings by Asif.
The former Pakistani bowler had claimed earlier in an interview that Tendulkar "closed his eyes" while facing a few of the bouncers from Akhtar in the Karachi Test.
“When we started bowling, Shoaib Akhtar bowled at express pace in that match. I was standing at square leg near the umpire and I myself saw that Tendulkar closed his eyes while facing one or two bouncers bowled by Shoaib. The Indians were playing on the back foot and we didn’t allow them to score even 240 in the first innings. We snatched victory from jaws of defeat,” Asif had said.
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