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Anil Kumble’s wife Chethana thought he was “probably joking” when the great Indian spinner, with a broken face and a broken jaw, decided to challenge the likes of Brian Lara during the Antigua Test in 2002.
Kumble ranks Lara as one of the hardest batters to pitch, as the Prince of Trinidad has three shots to one delivery.
But Lara’s fearsome reputation wasn’t good enough to prevent Kumble from producing one of the bravest feats in cricket, serving 14 consecutive overs and dismissing a wire-jawed batting legend.
“I told my wife, Chetna and I called her. When we talked, I said, look I have to go home because I just need surgery. So, I arranged it all in Bangalore.
“…And when I left the call, I just told her the look I’ll go and give her, but she probably thought I was just joking,” Kumble recalled during an interview with JioCinema.
“I don’t think she took it seriously. What does she say?” The former India captain said that even after breaking his jaw he felt it was his responsibility to get some wickets for the team.
“So, when I went back to the dressing room, I saw Sachin bowling because he was the only guy in the team who could bowl and then Wavell Hinds, I think he was bowling and I don’t remember anyone else batting,” Kumble said.
“And I thought it was my chance. I have to go and get two wickets. If we can get the West Indies three or four, at the end of the second or third day. I think if I can get them out, maybe we have a chance to win the match. That was it.” is the only thought.
“So, I told Andrew Leibos — get me out there.” Kumble was scheduled to fly back to Bangalore the next day for the surgery, and said at the time, “At least now I can go home with the idea that I did my best.” Kumble hit at No. 7, by a Mervyn Dillon short ball.
He spat blood but batted for another 20 minutes in the fourth Test of that series in more than two decades.
When asked about the toughest opponents he played with during his illustrious career, he picked Lara, Saeed Anwar, Jacques Kallis and Aravinda de Silva among others.
Well, I think it was good that most of them were part of my team. Imagine bowling Sachin, Rahul, Saurav, Viru and Laxman, all those guys in a match. Against whom I was thrown,” he said.
“Aravinda de Silva was tough and Bryan Lara – he probably had three shots on every ball and he would change. You thought you got him.” In Lara, the only man to score 400 in Test cricket, he continued, “You’d feel you cheated it and all of a sudden you’re playing a shot you can’t imagine and when you know he’s advanced, you beat him, and then he’d use pace and then be late to cut for fours and that was his characteristic.” Kumble added, “I think in every series, you’re kind of faced with two tough guys who are kind of hard. Jacques Callis was someone who never gave up his shot. Enzi (Inzam-ul-Haq) was really tough.
“Then I mean, some of the lefties were really—Hayden was someone who was imposing. We knew getting him out of LBW was out of the equation.” Kumble, one of only three cricketers to take all ten wickets in a Test match innings, said the idea that he could account for all the Pakistani batsmen during the 1999 game in Delhi came to his mind after he picked up the sixth wicket.
“…I think at the end of the sixth, it was a tea break. Yeah. So, I got a little break and then it happened seven. Salim Malik got out and then it happened eight and nine in two deliveries off the fifth and sixth ball so I knew that, well, here’s my chance “.
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