"I knocked him over" - Steve O'Keefe recalls Virat Kohli wicket as his most memorable scalp
Former Australia spinner Steve O'Keefe recently recalled taking the wicket of Virat Kohli in the Pune Test in 2017 as his most memorable wicket. Australia beat India in Pune to take a series lead and O'Keefe was the star, picking up12 wickets in the match.
During India's second innings, O'Keefe got the wicket of the then-India captain with a ball that came in with the angle, surprising Kohli who had expected the delivery to turn away.
Asked on SEN Radio about his most memorable wicket, Steve O'Keefe said:
"My most memorable was probably Virat Kohli in India. I knocked him over. We were playing on this absolute dust bowl of a wicket, it was spinning and ragging sideways. It was an absolute tip of a wicket, junk. Ravi Shastri described the wicket of having dermatitis, it was that bad, it had holes in it."
He then went on to describe the wicket and added:
"To top it off, Virat just lets this ball go, it pitches outside off, and I'm meant to be spinning the ball (away) towards first or second slip. This thing just continued on with the angle, I'm trying to spin it and it's knocked out off-stump so I'm like, 'You beauty!'"
O'Keefe finished his Test career with 35 wickets from nine matches.
"I went out and put fewer revs" - Steve O'Keefe on how he outperformed India spinners in Pune
While Steve O'Keefe ran riot in Pune, India's spinners did not fare quite as well, despite the pitch being an absolute dustbowl.
Ravichandran Ashwin picked up a total of seven wickets in the match while Ravindra Jadeja bagged five. Jayant Yadav finished with just the two scalps to his name.
O'Keefe, meanwhile, stole the show with 12 wickets as Australia triumphed by 333 runs. Speaking about how he got his success in that match, he said:
"The Indian spinners came out in the first innings and were just spinning it wildly, going to second slip, bouncing off the middle — they were going everywhere. Then I went out and put fewer revs than the world does a day, and they're just sliding on, I'm just getting LBWs with these non-turners."
O'Keefe returned identical figures of 6/35 in both innings and it was his best performance in Test cricket. India, of course, came back to beat Australia 2-1 in the series despite losing the opener.