Former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar recalled an incident with ex-India skipper Sourav Ganguly during their time together with the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) back in 2008. Akhtar, who was also called the Rawalpindi Express, had dismissed Mumbai Indians' (MI) skipper Sachin Tendulkar for a duck while defending a small total of 67 runs. He revealed that the backlash of the crowd prompted then-KKR captain Ganguly to change Akhtar’s fielding position to save him from outburst of fans inside the stadium.
"We had scored really less. When the match began, the atmosphere was electric. It was Sachin's city, Mumbai. It was Sachin Tendulkar vs Shoaib Akhtar and we at KKR had Shahrukh Khan in the stadium as well. The stadium and entire Mumbai were packed. Ahead of the match, we were having friendly chat and both Sachin and I greeted each other," he told SportsKeeda.
"It was a beautiful ground and a fantastic atmosphere. Stadium was fully packed. But I dismissed Sachin Tendulkar in the first over itself and that was a huge mistake. Then I got a lot of abuses when I was at fine leg. Sourav Ganguly told me, Come to mid-wicket, these people will kill you. Who told you to dismiss Sachin? That too in Mumbai?" Akhtar added.
In that match, the former cricketer recalled how KKR were bundled out for a lowly 67 after batting first. MI won the match comfortably by eight wickets, and one of the two wickets that fell was of Tendulkar who was dismissed by Akhtar for a duck.
But once the match ended, Akhtar said he could not hear a single bad word from the Mumbai folks. "I worked a lot in Mumbai and got lots of love. I was happy because at Wankhede no one abused my country, no one passed any racist comments. The crowd at Wankhede was very passionate. I wish I played more games there," reminisced Akhtar.
During his long and illustrious career, Akhtar dismissed Tendulkar eight times in international cricket. He got the Master Blaster out thrice in Tests and five times in ODIs. The one other instance was in the very first edition of the IPL as mentioned above. It was also the last time that Akhtar scalped Tendulkar, and it turned out to be a pretty unforgettable encounter for the Rawalpindi Express.
