Teamed with MS Dhoni once to manipulate Shoaib Akhtar into bowling short, reveals Irfan Pathan

The Faisalabad encounter in 2006 between India and Pakistan was a high-scoring game which eventually ended in a draw, but having scored 588 in their first innings and having reduced India to 281/5, Pakistan did have their chances to run through the Indian batting and win the game. However, a 210-run stand between Irfan Pathan and MS Dhoni ended up hindering Pakistan’s chances of winning and eventually, with both sides scoring over 580 in the first innings, the game ended as a draw.

However, speaking to Sports Tak, Pathan, who scored 90 in that encounter, revealed that both himself and Dhoni came up with an innovative way to encounter the vicious reverse-swing that was on offer. Pathan revealed that he teamed up with Dhoni and sledged Akhtar, something that infuriated the pacer, who then decided to dish out bouncers. However, the ‘bouncer’ tactic ended up favouring India as it meant that Akhtar failed to utilize the reverse swing that was on offer.

“Akhtar was sledging as always, trying to get into our minds and break the partnership. I told Dhoni ‘I will sledge Akhtar and you just laugh at him’ and Dhoni agreed to it. Akhtar continued sledging us and at the time, the ball was also starting to reverse swing, which was even more dangerous for us. Our plan was to negate the reverse swing on the ball, which we could do if we could Akhtar to bowl shorter deliveries,” Pathan told Sports Tak in an interview, reported Hindustan Times.

“That was the time, I sledged Akhtar saying ‘will you be able to bowl with the same intensity in the next spell?’. He responded angrily ‘you are talking too much, I will remove you from here’. So I said, ‘You won’t be able to do it, I am also a real Pathan, you just do your bowling, don’t talk’.”

That ploy worked wonders as the duo of Pathan and Dhoni negated the hostile spell from Akthar and went on to put on a 200-run stand, which helped India draw the game. Akhtar ended with figures of 1/100 in the innings and Pathan revealed that batting became easier for India post the right-armer’s spell hostile spell, which himself and Dhoni had overcome through some smart thinking.

“The next ball was a bouncer, I was ready for it. I left it. Then he started bowling short balls. I went to tap gloves with Dhoni while Akhtar was there, and I said ‘Paaji, the pitch is damp, you need to bowl a little more shorter’. He kept getting angry, and we were able to play out that spell. After Akhtar’s spell, the batting became easier for us, and we were able to save the Test match and the match ended in a draw.”

Despite drawing the first two Tests, India ended up losing the third Test in Karachi by a thumping 341-run margin, thereby losing the series 1-0.