‘I intentionally wanted to hit Sachin Tendulkar and wound him’

Batting legend Sachin Tendulkar is part of several cricketing folklore, which also include intriguing battles with pacers from across the globe. The 'God of Cricket' has dominated many such battles but there have been rare occasions when bowlers have had their say. 

Former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar during a candid chat with Sportskeeda recalled one such moment, which took place during India's tour to Pakistan in 2006. 

It was the third Test between the two countries in Karachi and Akhtar, who is renowned for his aggressive nature, admitted his intention was to hurt Tendulkar and not dismiss him.  

"I'm revealing this for the first time. I intentionally wanted to hit Sachin in that Test match. I was determined that I had to wound Sachin in that Test at any cost.  

"Inzamam kept telling that bowl in front of the wickets, but I wanted to hit Sachin. So I hit him on his helmet and I felt he was done. But when I watched the video, I saw Sachin had managed to save his head," said Akhtar.

Akhtar further stated that while his attempt to leave Tendulkar continued, disgraced Pakistan pacer Mohammad Asif troubled the Indian batters with his clinical display. 

"I again tried to injure him. But on another side, Indian batting was facing music in the shape of Asif. 

"I had rarely seen anyone bowl as good as the way Asif bowled on that particular day," he added. 

It was the same Test when Irfan Pathan had claimed the famous hat-trick, dismissing Salman Butt, Younis Khan, and Mohammad Yousuf in the first over.

India had lost the contest by 341 runs, which also cost them the three-match series 1-0. Asif had bowled brilliantly in the contest picking four wickets in the first inning, and three in the second.

Tendulkar, on the other hand, was dismissed on 23 (29) by Abdul Razzaq in the first inning and was packed on 26 (47) in the second by Asif.

In previous interviews, Asif had claimed that Tendulkar "closed his eyes" while dealing with a couple of bouncers from Akthar during the contest.

"When the match started, Irfan Pathan claimed a hat-trick in the first over itself. Our morale was down. Kamran Akmal scored a century lower down the order. We scored around 240 runs.

"When we started bowling, Shoaib Akhtar bowled at express pace in that match. I was standing at square leg near the umpire and I myself saw that Tendulkar closed his eyes while facing one or two bouncers bowled by Shoaib. The Indians were playing on the back foot and we didn't allow them to score even 240 in the first innings. We snatched victory from jaws of defeat," Asif had said in the Burgerz show.