February 17, 1999. India. Pakistan. Test Cricket. Eden Gardens, Kolkata. 100,000 fans on the ground and millions following it on their TV sets, radios around the world. What more can a cricket fan ask for!
It’s the second day of the India-Pakistan Test and what could be a better occasion for a young fast-bowler to announce his arrival. Shoaib Akhtar, the tall, flamboyant, and really quick youngster, had made his Test debut two year earlier.
He had seen his team dismissed for just 185 and then India reaching 147-2, looking untroubled by anything that he, Wasim Akram and Saqlain Mushtaq had thrown at Rahul Dravid and Sadagopan Ramesh.
But then Akhtar decided to shake the whole of India from their comfort zone. And he took just two ball to do that. The ball was 50 overs old and that’s exactly the kind of cherry that Pakistan bowlers love to bowl with.
Over number 51. Akhtar steams in to Dravid who has faced 92-balls in nearly two hours to get to his 24. The ball is fast and looks like it’s going to be a full-toss but then it suddenly dips in and by the time Dravid could bring his bat down he could hear the sound of leather crashing into the wooden stumps. Leg-stump is uprooted.