Indian legend ‘closed his eyes’ while facing Akhtar’s bouncers: Asif

Pakistan pacer Mohammad Asif has revealed an interesting story regarding India’s tour to Pakistan in 2006, which involved former speedster Shoaib Akhtar and the Men in Blue batting legend Sachin Tendulkar.

While speaking about the third Test match of the series in Karachi, where Indian left-arm seamer Irfan Pathan took a hat-trick in the first innings, Asif recalled how Pakistan snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.

“When the match started, Irfan Pathan claimed a hat-trick in the first over itself. Our morale was down. Kamran Akmal scored a century lower down the order. We scored around 240 runs,” said Asif while speaking on Pakistani show The Burgerz.

“The Indians were playing on the backfoot and we didn’t allow them to score even 240 in the first innings. We snatched victory from jaws of defeat,” he added.

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The right-armer also opened up on Tendulkar’s battle against Akhtar, which included the former closing his eyes while facing the latter’s bouncers.

“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,” he said.

Pakistan were bowled out for 245 in the first innings but were able to restrict India to 238, in reply. The hosts posted 599 runs on board in the second innings and went on to win the match by 341 runs.

Asif’s career went sideways after his involvement in the infamous 2010 spot-fixing scandal. After serving a seven-year ban, he returned to first-class cricket but never got a chance to don Pakistan colours again.