Fans always enjoy the match between arch-rivals -India ad Pakistan. And, who can forget the 2007 T20 World Cup match where India bowled out Pakistan. And, Robin Uthappa shared that it was a piece of street-smartness by MS Dhoni which helped them win.
Uthappa said that Dhoni did something that Pakistan wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal did not do during the game and that made it easy for the Indian bowlers to hit the stumps as well.
While speaking on an ESPNCricinfo podcast, Robin Uthappa said, “One of the things that MS Dhoni did really well that night, and that he did different from what the Pakistan keeper did, was where he stood behind the stumps.”
“The Pakistan keeper (Kamran Akmal) was standing where a keeper usually stands. A few feet back and besides the stump — just alongside the stump. But MS was (sitting) right behind the stumps and that made it so much easier for us. We just had to bowl at MS and it gave us the best chance to hit the wickets. That’s all we did,” he further added.
A lot of credit also should go to Venkatesh Prasad: Robin Uthappa
On the other hand, Pakistan, who chose most of their regular bowlers for the bowl-out, failed to have success much as the first three – Yasir Arafat, Umar Gul, and Shahid Afridi – all missed the stumps. However, India went for Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, and Robin Uthappa, all of whom hit the stumps as well.
“Venkatesh Prasad (India’s bowling coach) was the studious type in our team back then. He was very astute and he had us preparing for this scenario. In the warm-ups, we had the bowlers pitted against the batsmen and we won the bowl-outs every time,” Uthappa recalled.
However, the 2007 India vs Pakistan match was one of the few international games where the winner was decided by the bowl-out before the concept of the Super Over came into the circuit in 2008. And, this remains India’s only match that went into a bowl-out as well.
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