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The sight of Shoaib Akhtar steaming in and delivering 90mph thunderbolts struck fear in the hearts of the greatest of modern-day batsmen.
When England toured Pakistan in 2005, however, it was Akhtar's slow, looping 'magic' deliveries which left Michael Vaughan's side dumbfounded.
Akhtar, who revealed after the series that he had been perfecting the 'dolly' in the run up to the England series, had picked up 11 wickets in the first two Tests. But it was in the third Test at Lahore, with 1-0 up, that the Rawalpindi Express rolled out his full variety.
Trailing by 348 runs in the second innings, Akhtar got into the attack with the only the second ball of the England effort. He accounted with Marcus Trescothick with a fast in dipper as the left-handed opener was trapped in front of the wickets.
Akhtar's next three victims all fell to the magic delivery, all bowled at gentle speeds of 69mph, 70mph and 66mph in a perfect exhibition of 'rolling the fingers over the ball'.
The 'Rawalpindi Express' finished with five as Pakistan completed an innings and 100-run win the in the Test to complete a 2-0 series triumph.
“Shoaib Akhtar was sharp enough to keep the batsmen honest but did most of his damage in Lahore with a slower ball that must be the best of its kind since Franklyn Stephenson was making mugs of a lot of us back in the 1980s,” former England captain Mike Gatting wrote of Akhtar's magic delivery after the Test.
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Comments (32) Closed
Oct 09, 2015 03:33pm
Yes, he was and he is the fastest bowler still no bowler can match his speed
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Oct 09, 2015 03:38pm
Poor personality, very questionable action. Very lucky to play international cricket for that long !
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Oct 09, 2015 03:54pm
A wasted talent.
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Oct 09, 2015 04:14pm
legend akhtar
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Oct 09, 2015 04:18pm
Remember that.
Poor Marcus Trescothick received a lot from Akhtar during that series.
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Oct 09, 2015 05:06pm
Shoaib Akhter was a treat to watch, when in full rythm, he would unsettle any batsman anywhete in the world.
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Oct 09, 2015 05:55pm
Love you Dawn for sharing Cricket Classics.
Shoaib has always been a treat to watch.
Perhaps the all time best!
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Oct 09, 2015 06:11pm
The celebrations were over the top .......so many times he hurt himself celebrating ......I liked Imran Khan 's low key celebrations a high five or two
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Oct 09, 2015 06:46pm
Love it!!! Well done to Shoaib, every reason to rejoice. Keep it up!
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Oct 09, 2015 06:58pm
I still watch Shoiab Akhtar's dismissals of worlds' best batsmen.
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Oct 09, 2015 07:02pm
Stop living in the past and start looking into the future.
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Oct 09, 2015 07:24pm
all batsmen's nightmare and fear especially the Indians
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Oct 09, 2015 08:33pm
@sadaqat hussain yeah specially in 2003 wc semi when he was hit for 17 runs and was removed after one over. Indians were trembling with fear. And another time wad when Indians scored 410 for opening wicket partnership that too in Pakistan.... What fear of akhtar, m still shaking lol
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Oct 09, 2015 08:41pm
@Mohit You can say all you want but you know the truth buddy. All Indian batsmen at one point or another have dreaded facing Pakistani bowlers such as Akhtar, Waqar, Wasim, Wahab, Asif, Amir and the list will continue till the end of time. :)
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Oct 09, 2015 09:55pm
@Mohit and You forgot Sachin the Indian God repeatedly bowled by Akhter and have you forgotten Ganguly rolling on the ground after hit by Akhter?
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Oct 09, 2015 10:35pm
@a ...I wish you had more than just an "a" but I can easily complete by "an indian troll".
but I can feel your pain of not being able to produce one genuine express fast bowler yet.
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Oct 09, 2015 10:48pm
plz report abt sachin bowled by shoaib
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Oct 10, 2015 12:20am
@Mohit I think you forgot the Akhtar's entry in test cricket with a BIG BANG!!! back to back clean bowled Dravid...and Sachin...or is it too scary to remember??
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Oct 10, 2015 12:23am
@a Akhtar never had a poor personality. He was a dashing, genuine fast bowler's personality if you know anything about true legendary fast bowlers of yester years and not IPL sissy spinner cum medium spinners. He had problems in discipline otherwise he could have played a lot more cricket with consistency. There are so many questionable actions like Lasith Malinga which the whole blind world can't see bowling almost under arm. Akhtar was the last of the 70s fast bowlers class in todays cricket.
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Oct 10, 2015 12:59am
They don't produce like them any more
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Oct 10, 2015 02:19am
@Moderate Voice - past is the foundation of the future.
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Oct 10, 2015 02:39am
Shoaib was the most exciting bowler in the history of the game , still remember when he bowled the fastest delivery ever bowled. He was sheer pace , controversial at times :) , game winner , more exciting to watch then Akram or even Waqar.
If he came in under the great Imran Khan his wicket tally would have been 400 + wickets as he was wasted by PCB policies and at times captains of Pakistan team.
For my Indian friends enjoy Mohit , Shami & Bhuvishner , you all have some catching up to do in this part of the game :)
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Oct 10, 2015 06:58am
@Z under arm bowling is not illegal
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Oct 10, 2015 09:26am
@Rashid Ishaq the only time he got better off indian batsmen was when he started. Indian batsmen specially sachin had a history of getting bowled by newbies, no nothing special here. for sachin its like getting bowled to Steve waugh
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Oct 10, 2015 09:28am
@Hasan so how many times have these bowlers won u world cup matches against India? zero...they aren't that good then
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Oct 10, 2015 10:03am
This is pathetic .
Nothing to celebrate in the present, so just re-live the past.
Akhtar , very questionable action, if you watch him closely , he throwing the ball.
Very selfish person.
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Oct 10, 2015 10:39am
@Mohit how many times have your FAST bowlers ever won you a match period. Hmmm... I think im hearing crickets.
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Oct 10, 2015 09:24pm
@Mohit I have mentioned Sachin's name just as an example otherwise the list is long if I keep naming your batsmen and the most important thing with Akhter was the beauty of a fast bowler, an aggressive, dangerous and the bullet speed. So how many such bowlers did India produce?
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Oct 10, 2015 10:29pm
People can say what they like about Shoaib Akhtar but he was a fantastic fast bowler, charismatic, fiery competitor and gave it his all when he did play. One thing I can comment on is that to my knowledge he never had corruption or match/spot fixing allegations thrown at him i.e. he was 'clean' in that respect. Hence for me this makes him more of one of the stand out cricketers from Pakistan whereas Wasim, Waqar, Mushtaq Ahmed have all been tainted by these allegations and were mentioned in Justice Qayyum report. After spot fixing scandal broke out they remained pretty quiet..
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Oct 11, 2015 12:30am
@Hasan way more than your bowlers have won you WC games against INDIA, ohh and without taking any drugs or messing with the balls, or taking any money ;)
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Oct 11, 2015 08:24am
He broke bones of players from both west indies or east indies.... brain lara and sourva ganguly.
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Oct 11, 2015 04:29pm
@Mohit well your players have been accused of cheating too so nothing knew there bro. Both our countries are corrupt as hell we all know tht. You still havent answered the 1 million dollar question, how come in a country of like 1 gazillion ppl, have you never found 1 geniune fast bowler? Oh and we r not in the habit of buying our world cups ;)
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