Laker-Kumble and a supernatural spectator!!!

An established English businessman came to India that year for work. After finishing all the business activities, he saw that there was one more day left in his hand. The gentleman's birthday also fell on that day. The wife also came with him. So he decided to return to the country only after spending the next day here. The age is not less. This time, let's spend the birthday in the favorite colony of the ancestors. But he could not have imagined that this birthday would make him an eyewitness to a historical event. The day was Sunday, February 8, 1999. Weekly holidays. It was winter in Delhi then. While it is an ideal day to travel, local friends are urging people to go and watch cricket matches. It's not that he doesn't like the game, but he doesn't like it. He never had the patience to buy a ticket and sit on the field all day. He played a lot of games as a child. He even went to see a match with his father once. His father was a big fan of cricket. Anyway, at last, he agreed to the insistence of his friends. The game is going on at Feroz Shah Kotla ground. The fourth day of the Test match. India vs Pakistan. Despite playing for five days, many Test matches remain unresolved. However, the result of this match was predictable. Because the fourth innings have started on the fourth day. Pakistan has a target of 420 runs. But given the state of the pitch, it doesn't look like the game will last five days.

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Pakistan spent the day without wickets till lunch. The two Pakistani openers continued to fight well even on bad wickets. However, seeing the Indian bowlers did not benefit the gentleman. How uncomfortable that spinner looked at length. Spinner is not like a slow-fast bowler'! How to jump and throw the ball on the force, but where to turn? But yes, the bowler has an impossible kind of control over one thing, which is to release the ball straight, which is called 'stump to stump' bowling. Although it did not work very well. He has already spent 26 runs in six overs. Let's see what he can play at the end of the lunch episode. After lunch, that spinner really started to show the game. After taking two wickets in a row, the whole gallery was flooded again and again, Kumble! Kumble! Although he could not make the hat-trick, he took four wickets in just three overs. The gentleman realized that there was no merit in just spinning the ball like a spinning wheel; I want a line, length, speed variation, bounce fluctuations, and much more! Kumble has already taken nine wickets, only one left. Hey, will he take ten or not? Has it ever been possible? All the stadiums are shaking with excitement! Meanwhile, Kumble again scored a hat-trick of 'On a hat-trick!' He is going to witness a strange event?

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The sharp gaze of the spectator was then twenty-two yards, but the gentleman was a little distracted. Whether Kumble's ball moves or not, one memory after another is spinning in the gentleman's head. Although he has never had a hobby in his business life for almost three decades, he never went to the field to watch cricket matches. Dad took me as a child. Then come to this stadium except for Eddin. Suddenly he remembered a word from his father's mouth, "Even Ian Johnson couldn't save himself!" How many can? In cricket matches, it is often the case that a batsman cannot defend even in the face of strong resistance, the opposing team snatches the victory. This is not the case in this match. Seeing the condition of the pitch, the result of the match was almost decided at the time of toss. Win the toss, win the match. So nothing special can be expected from the eleven batsmen Waqar Yunus. But does he have to come up with his own wicket like the other nine? The idea of ​​saving the match and defending the end was a fantasy but can anyone else take the wicket? Walker eventually survived Kumble's victim. But I have to sacrifice the other (Wasim Akram). Pakistan lost the match with Anil Kumble took ten wickets! World record! The English gentleman was overwhelmed with emotion. The special birthday gift is never forgotten! The wife sitting next to him also felt his excitement. The wife also enjoyed the match well. Excited, the gentleman shared the story with the spectator next to him, "You know, I only went to watch a cricket match with my father once when I was ten years old, and so on."

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The match is over. The audience was delighted to return to their homes. There was an England off-spinner named Jim Laker who set this record long before Kumble! He has taken ten wickets in an innings; He has taken 19 wickets from a whole Test match. Surely many lucky spectators were present on the field even on the day of building that unique fame. What a surprise! The English gentleman named Richard Stokes is an eyewitness of that incident! About 1956. Richard Stokes, a 10-year-old boy, held his father's hand at Old Trafford; Watch the Test match between England and Australia. Dad was a B Division cricketer in Surrey. That was the experience of watching the first cricket match of that little boy's life. Exactly 43 years after that incident, Feroz Shah came to the field for the second time in Kotla! Although most of Jim Laker's memories are now blurred, one thing that comes to mind is that Ian Johnson was the only unbeaten batsman out of eleven.