Shoaib Akhtar explains how he became a star player

The Asian Test Championship game between India and Pakistan was a treat to watch for the fans on either side of the Wagah Border. The match was played at the Eden Gardens Stadium in Kolkata in February 1999. The game was famous for Shoaib Akhtar disturbing the stumps behind Sachin Tendulkar. The dismissal had silenced the crowd as they were passionate about the legend.

Remembering the same, Akhtar has said the atmosphere was different and finally Tendulkar got ready to face the former. The Rawalpindi-born added that he was completely focused on the batting maestro. He also explained how he dismissed the 2011 World Cup winner with an inswing yorker. The 46-year-old said he made no mistake in his run-up and Sachin lifted the bat and was gone with a blink of an eye.

The 163-ODI player further added that after the Almighty, Tendulkar made him a star player in the Asian team.

“This was the kind of atmosphere and finally Sachin got ready. I started running in and I was completely focused on him. If he moved even a little bit, I would have been able to catch that. The ball went all the way to the crease, I made no mistake in my run-up, jump or action. I released the ball, Sachin lifted his bat and then, gone. He had a very high lift and the ball was reversing a lot. The ball that I bowled, I knew it would hit the stumps. I was not surprised and you would see that. After the almighty, it is probably Sachin who made me a star because of that incident,” said Shoaib.

Talking about the game, the Wasim Akram-led side won the toss and elected to bat first. They were restricted to 185 with Moin Khan scoring 70 and Javagal Srinath taking a fifer. In reply, the Mohammad Azharuddin-led team got to 223 runs with Sadagopan Ramesh scoring 79 and Akhtar taking four wickets. The hosts went on to lose the game by 46 runs.