MS Dhoni is one of the spectacular cricketer of the Decade. During his long International Career he has produced some memorable knocks which has frustrated several bowlers.
Though Dhoni is regarded One Day Specialist during the early phase of his career he has played one of his career’s best test knock which frustrated Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar so much that he bowled an ‘Intentional beamer’ to Dhoni & later apologized to Dhoni for it. Speaking about the incident on Aakash Chopra’s YouTube Channel Akhtar revealed that it was first time in his career that he had knowingly bowled a dangerous delivery to any batsman & then later felt bad about it & also regretted for it.
Akhtar accepted that he shouldn’t have done that & even apologized to Dhoni for such an irresponsible action. Akhtar also revealed the reason behind getting so much frustrated with Dhoni, he said that he was not fit during that match & was playing in pain with an injury in his front leg.
“When India came to Pakistan, I had some injury in my landing leg. Still I decided to play by taking injection on daily basis. Doctor would come and numb my leg to give me injections daily. The pitch in Faisalabad was very slow and Dhoni went on to score a hundred,” Akhtar told Aakash Chopra on his show ‘AakashVani’.
“I think I had bowled an 8-9 over spell in Faisalabad. It was a quick spell and Dhoni scored a hundred. I intentionally bowled a beamer to Dhoni and then apologized to him,” said the former fast bowler.
“It was the first time in my life I had bowled a beamer intentionally. 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,” he added.
This particular incident took place during the second test match of India’s tour to Pakistan in 2006. Dhoni scored his maiden Test century in the first innings — scoring 148 off just 153 balls. His knock included 19 fours & four hits over the fence & India scored a whopping 603 runs in reply to Pakistan’s first innings total score of 588 runs.
Pakistan also declared their second innings at 490/8, setting India a huge 476-run target to win. The visitors then scored 21 runs for no loss as the match ended in a draw.
