By God.

Eden Gardens, 1999

Scene: India had just lost a batsman, perhaps Rahul Dravid. I felt India were batting well. They had seen off Akram and Co. quite well. Plus the Indian team was fresh from having defeated the Pakistanis, days earlier at Feroz Shah Kotla stadium, where Kumble had taken 10 wickets in an innings. So, in came Tendulkar , cameras focussing on him, to a huge roar from the fans.
By the way if you haven't ever witnessed the reception Tendulkar gets in Eden Gardens, be sure to witness it personally once before you die. I can tell you its worth billion and billions of dollars..as the ad says, there are some things money cant buy..really it just can't.

Coming back to the scene, my TV was mute, I thought Tendulkar's gonna blast this fellow away. Really was not interested, I mean this was to be expected from Tendulkar. But moments later what I saw, still psyches me out. It instilled a fear so deep down in my conscious that I still pray like mad when Akhtar bowls to India. I was just not prepared for it...didnt have the capacity to imagine it...or maybe Tendulkar never gave me reasons to, before that delivery. That was a snorter of a delivery. It was like a laser guided bullet. The ball, a yorker, travelled at approximately 150 kmph, mid air it swinged slightly from off stump line to middle stump and hit the feet of the middle stump, which cart-wheeled and landed miles away from its orignal position. Tendulkar, bowled first ball and that too his middle stump, which is uprooted.

I cant tell the shock waves it sent around the stadium and I personally felt it in my body. I was stunned, the crowd was stunned. It was pin drop silence in Eden Gardens. I mean who was Shoiab Akhtar then, and he was bowling to arguably the gratest batsman ever. A shiver ran through my body and that one delivery for me destroyed the air of invulnerability about Tendulkar. That one delivery, I think went a long way in making the Pakistan team the favourites for the world cup which was to be held later that year. Ofcourse it hit our moral so badly, that Pakistan remained undefeated in the rest of the series.