Anil Kumble is probably the biggest match winner that India has seen and he is the greatest bowler to ever play for India and the fact that he is among the only 3 test Bowlers in history to take 10 wickets in a test innings speaks to the volumes of his greatness. Anil Kumble did this feat against arch rivals Pakistan at Delhi in 1999.
This test match was in the balance and Anil Kumble was the difference maker in the last innings of the test match and the Pakistan team at that time was one of the best in the world so this feat is even more incredible.
Let’s look at this historic bowling performance:
The importance of this test match
This test match was important and India had to win this test match to get the lead in this series against a great team and this test match was at Delhi and a lot of fans came in large numbers to see the Indian team perform well and the batters had done well in this test match and in the last innings Pakistan needed 419 runs to win this test match and Pakistan were batting well and thus Anil Kumble.
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The Performance that changed everything
It was the 4th innings of the test match and India needed a match winning performance from their bowlers and the biggest match winner stepped up that day as Anil Kumble bowled 26.3 overs in that innings out of a total of 60.3 overs which were bowled in the innings and Pakistan could only make 207 runs in the 4th innings and Anil Kumble gave away 74 runs and he took all 10 wickets of the Pakistani innings and the dismissals included Bowled, lbw and caught as well. This was a performance that out Anil Kumble in a different level and after this he was never dropped and after him only 1 other man has been able to pick up 10 wickets in a test innings.
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The Impact of this performance
The everlasting impact of this historic performance is still felt to this day as watching that match a lot of young players wanted to bowl leg spin and be like Anil Kumble and play for India. Anil Kumble changed the way the people looked at leg spinners so much so that these days it is not possible to imagine a team without a leg spinner and he and Shane Warne were responsible for inspiring the majority of the up and coming leg spinners. Yuzvendra Chahal, Amit Mishra, Piyush Chawla and so many others have played for India being inspired by him.
Check the full scorecard here India vs Pakistan 2nd Test 1999
Also Read: Anil Kumble: Engineer to India’s Leading Wicket Taker
