There are few days in sporting history that are immortalised and remembered forever. 7th February 1999 was one such day when Anil Kumble ran through the Pakistan batting line-up and took all ten wickets in the fourth innings of the match at Delhi.
By the virtue of his historic feat, Kumble had become only the second player in the history of Test cricket to take a ten-wicket haul. English spinner Jim Laker was the first player to achieve the same in a Test match against Australia at Manchester in 1956. Laker had taken 19 wickets in the game having taken a nine-wicket haul in the first innings.
On the 23rd anniversary of Kumble’s historic feat, Harbhajan Singh poked fun at Kumble and called him ‘very greedy.’ Harbhajan further lavished praise on the legendary spinner and claimed he was ‘very proud’ of him.
“What a day it was @anilkumble1074 aap bhut greedy ho 10 k 10 le leya.. mujhe 1 to lene dete.. Proud of u Anil Bhai,” wrote Harbhajan on Twitter responding to a post from BCCI. Kumble responded by thanking him for the compliments.
Last year in a Test match against India at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium, New Zealand spinner Ajaz Patel joined Kumble and Laker in an elite list. Despite the visitors suffering a heavy 372-run defeat, Patel took a 10-wicket haul in the first innings and followed it up with four more wickets in the second.
Who is Anil Kumble?
With 619 international wickets to his name, Kumble is the fourth-highest wicket-taker in the history of Test cricket. He is only behind Muttiah Muralitharan, Shane Warne, and James Anderson on the list and no other Indian bowler has taken more scalps than him in the longest format of the game.
Kumble, who retired from international cricket in 2008 played 132 Test matches and 271 ODIs and is one of India’s greatest ever cricketers. He took 337 wickets in ODI cricket and coached the national team for one year.
