India and Pakistan’s Faisalabad Test match is always known for MS Dhoni’s blistering hundred. Th former India skipper scored his maiden Test ton and put on a 210 run stand with Irfan Pathan. Dhoni made 148 while Pathan also scored crucial 90 runs in India’s first innings. Pathan revealed an interesting incident which took place when he joined Dhoni in the middle.
Meanwhile, the incident took place when Shoaib Akhtar was in the middle of a hostile spell of fast bowling. The fast bowler was bowling at a rapid pace when Dhoni was trying to counter-attack him. Akhtar wasn’t impressed with this tactic of MS Dhoni, who was just playing in his fourth Test match.
Irfan Pathan recalls an anecdote when he sledges Shoaib Akhtar
When Pathan joined him he had a plan in mind to counter Akhtar’s sledges. The Indian all-rounder wanted Dhoni to focus on his batting and not get out. Realising the importance of Dhoni’s wicket, Pathan told him that he will sledge Shoaib Akhtar and you just laugh on him.
“When I was coming out to bat, I asked Dhoni how was the pitch behaving? He responded by saying, ‘nothing much you just bat’,” Irfan Pathan told Sports Tak during an Instagram live.
“I faced Akhtar’s first ball and it was a bouncer and I couldn’t even see the ball. Somehow we tried to negotiate his spell. Once we are were building out partnership, Akhtar came again to ball a new spell”.
“Akhtar was sledging Dhoni and I told him ‘I will sledge Akhtar, you just laugh at him’ and Dhoni agreed to it. Akhtar continued sledging us and the ball started to reverse. That was the time I told Akhtar, ‘will you be able to bowl the next spell with the same intensity? Akhtar was angered by this and told me ‘you talk too much’”.
The tactics of Irfan Pathan and MS Dhoni worked as they helped India drew the Test match. Pakistan scored a mammoth 588 runs in their first innings. India had to bat well in their first innings and they did exactly just that by scoring 603. The partnership of Dhoni and Pathan was special as they did not allow the Pakistan bowling attack to dismiss them cheaply and kept grinding them.
