Flashback: Kumble annihilates the Windies - Hero Cup finals, 1993
India-West Indies matches have always given us some of the most memorable moments. From winning the 1983 World Cup to Gavaskar scoring his highest test score to Sehwag scoring a double hundred in ODI to Prithvi Shaw scoring a century on debut. One man who has given us two of the iconic moment against the Windies is Anil Kumble. One of them came in 2002 in the Antigua test, when he came back to bowl with a broken jaw.
This article talks about the other iconic performance by him which came in 1993 in the finals of the Hero Cup.
The 1993 Hero Cup finals was played between India and West Indies at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. West Indies had won the toss and elected to field first. A decent performance by the Indian batsmen saw India score 225/7 at the end of 50 overs. Vinod Kambli, with 68 runs, was the top scorer of the innings. The other batsmen chipped in with useful 20's and 30's. Anderson Cummins was the pick of the West Indies bowlers picking up 3 wickets for 38 runs.
West Indies began their chase in a disastrous fashion. They lost their first wicket when the score was 1 when Phil Simmons was bowled by Manoj Prabhakar. Brian Lara was out next bowled out by Sachin Tendulkar.
Kapil Dev picked up two wickets dismissing Richie Richardson and Keith Arthurton. West Indies at this stage was 63 at the loss of 4 wickets. Then began the Anil Kumble show. His 6.2 overs saw him taking the remaining six wickets and giving away just 12 runs.
His spell saw 4 batsmen being clean bowled and one caught out and LBW each. He also managed to bowl 2 maiden overs. After the fifth wicket of Roland Holder fell, none of the remaining batsmen could get their score into the double figures. The last 5 wickets to fall could only manage to score 4,1,3,0 & 0 respectively. The Windies were all out for 123 runs.
Anil Kumble was adjudged the Player of the Match. His 6/12 till this date remains one of the best bowling performance by an Indian bowler in ODI's.