Got Sachin’s wickets because of my skill set and level of unplayability, admits Abdul Razzaq

India’s high-octane clashes against Pakistan has been well-documented, leading to several rivalries between the players from the two teams. In the early 2000s,  thanks to the two sides constantly facing each other, either in bilateral tours or ICC competitions, they had a rivalry going on between them. 

Most notably, during the 2003 edition of the tournament, tempers flared, after which Sachin Tendulkar was hailed as one of the greatest players from the country. However, during his career, the Indian batsman had some tough times, against certain bowlers. Former Pakistan all-rounder Abdul Razzaq is one of them, and the right-armer dismissed the maestro six times in international cricket. Speaking about his battles with Sachin, Razzaq admitted that he only got the former’s wicket because of his 'unplayable' skills, notably to swing the ball back into the right-hander sharply.

"Naturally, when you have that kind of delivery with yourself in international cricket, or you're unplayable, you're bound to have success. Otherwise, the normal bowlers have no swing, they can't execute yorkers and can't create any hype," Razzaq told Geo News. 

In addition, the all-rounder also added that his plan against Sachin was simple - to bowl the nice ball. In Razzaq’s own words, he was consistently getting the ball to effectively in-swing and reverse-swing into the right-hander, which caused the Indian batsman to succumb under pressure. 

"In the beginning, I used to bowl effective in-swing and reverse swing the ball nicely as well. You can't call it a weakness. You can call it a nice ball. It's possible that he (Tendulkar) had something else going on in his mind, perhaps he was expecting out-swingers," Razzaq added.