I purposely bowled a beamer to MS Dhoni: Shoaib Akhtar
Former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar has revealed that he purposely bowled a beamer to MS Dhoni during the Faisalabad Test of 2006. He added that it was the only time he bowled such a delivery intentionally during his career.
Shoaib Akhtar spoke about the injuries that bogged him during his career, along with his duels with Indian batsmen, during an interaction with Aakash Chopra on the latter's YouTube channel.
Shoaib Akhtar was asked if the height of his jump at the crease had reduced over the years, much like Zaheer Khan, because of having bowled for so long.
The Rawalpindi Express responded that his knees had given up in 1997 and that it was only the injections he was taking that allowed him to continue bowling.
"The deer type jump gets almost finished after 2-3 years. My knees brought me to my knees. My knees had become useless in 1997. Still I kept fighting and playing, after taking injections regularly."
Shoaib Akhtar recalled that when India had toured Pakistan in 2006, he had bowled with a broken fibula bone. He also cursed the placid wickets while remembering MS Dhoni's century in the Faisalabad Test match.
"I remember when India had come to Pakistan, my left fibula was broken, my landing leg. MS Dhoni had scored a century at Faisalabad. What sort of wickets they had prepared, you know."
The 44-year-old disclosed that he used to take injections daily to reduce the pain he was enduring.
"Every day they used to put big injections on my leg to make it numb and I kept on bowling. They asked me to play that last Test match as after that my leg would not support me. My fibula was almost hanging."
Shoaib Akhtar on bowling a beamer to MS Dhoni
Shoaib Akhtar acknowledged that he intentionally bowled a beamer to MS Dhoni during the Faisalabad Test after the Indian wicket-keeper-batsman had smashed a century.
"I think I had bowled a 8-9 over spell in Faisalabad. It was a quick spell and Dhoni scored a hundred. I purposely bowled a beamer to Dhoni and then apologised to him."
Aakash Chopra asked Shoaib Akhtar if the beamers are always bowled purposely or some of them slip out of the hand. The express pacer responded that it was the only time he had bowled a beamer intentionally as he had got frustrated, and expressed his regret at having done so.
"It was the first time in my life I had bowled a beamer purposely. I shouldn't have done it. I regretted it a lot. He was playing so well and the wickets were so slow. However fast I was bowling, he kept on hitting. I think I got frustrated."
Shoaib Akhtar bowled a beamer at MS Dhoni in the Faisalabad Test of January 2006, when the dynamic wicket-keeper-batsman was unbeaten on 135 runs, having already smashed the speedster for three boundaries in the over.
MS Dhoni played a 148-run knock in the Test match, his maiden Test century, and stitched together a 210-run partnership with Irfan Pathan after India were in trouble having been reduced to a score of 281/5 in response to Pakistan's massive first-innings score of 588 runs.
The Test match eventually petered out into a tame draw.