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| Sami Chaudhry's column: 'If there is so much passion for watching fast bowling.' |
When the South African team on the tour of England under the leadership of Kepler Wessels landed at the Oval on the third morning of the third Test, Devon Malcolm himself had no idea what history was going to be made there and how they would Cult' was to be immortalized.
Devon Malcolm was an interesting character. The tall Jamaican-born fast bowler was picked by England when in 1989, English cricket decided to field the tall West Indian fast bowlers when they toured the West Indies.
Malcolm played just forty Test matches in his short career and was without exaggeration the fastest bowler of his era with the fastest ball regularly recorded at 156.1 mph, but his career was marred by several controversies. suffered from ups and downs and their overall record was not very encouraging.
Although he retired from the county at the age of 40 a few years after his ban from international cricket, he was still bowling faster than the fastest fast bowlers on the international circuit.
The catalyst for the tension on the pitch at The Oval that morning was Dion Malcolm himself, whose first-innings bouncer hit Jonty Rhodes in such a way that he had to be taken out of the match and rushed to hospital.
Now the South African fielders had the same anger on their lips that prompted Fanny de Villiers to hit Malcolm with the same response.
In a recent interview with The Telegraph, Malcolm said that the fast bowlers of his era had an unspoken agreement and did not bounce the opposing fast bowlers when they came to bat in the lower order.
Malcolm had made up his mind that even Fanny de Villiers would not break this 'pact' and prepared to play a defensive stroke with a straight bat.
But Fanny de Villiers' surprise bouncer smashed the helmet right in front of Malcolm's eyes and hit him on the forehead and he staggered back. The South African slip fielders mumbled a few phrases and then Malcolm collected his senses and turned around to say what has become folklore in English cricket:
If you are so fond of watching fast bowling, just wait for your innings to start. Today you will become a part of history.
Then Devon Malcolm tested the courage of the South African batsmen in such a way that the South African batting, which showed superiority throughout the series, proved to be the guest of only two sessions, and by taking 9 wickets for just 57 runs, Malcolm gave a memorable victory to the English team. gave
When such an 'eagle spirit' awakens in the fast bowlers as was the case with Wahab Riaz's spell in recent history, cricket becomes a theater. In Wahab Riaz too, the main triggers for awakening that 'spirit' were Mitchell Starc's menacing bouncers on Adelaide's unusual green top and the Australian slip fielders' verbal abuse of them.
Although Ehsanullah's career is at a completely different stage from that of Devin Malcolm and Wahab Riaz and there was no personal animosity that would have gotten on Ehsanullah's nerves, in this last match when the dignity of his team was questioned. So Ehsanullah also thought to tell the Afghan aggression what is the name of fast bowling.
Pakistani batting also made a brilliant counter-attack and Saeem Ayub put his bitter memories of the last two matches behind him and showed his skills to the fullest. Shadab Khan gave an excellent all-round performance and was deservedly Man of the Match.
But in the powerplay, when Rehmanullah Garbaz caught Imad Wasim and after that Zaman Khan's over also proved to be very expensive, there was a moment of concern and the concerns of a clean sweep were also about to collide with the possibilities.
But when Ehsanullah came in for the first over, his discipline and aggression had that great balance to drop two key wickets off Kamal Ayari, and the Afghan innings, which was going at a good run rate, suddenly got lost somewhere in the fog.
Ehsan is still at the very beginning of his career and the furnace of international cricket experience will not be kind to him every day, but the way his spell here captivated the Sharjah Stadium, the Afghan batting took its breath away.
Ehsanullah not only blew away the fears of whitewashing but also announced his arrival in international cricket.
However, if this match was against a high-profile team instead of Afghanistan, this spell would have been etched in some memories forever like a folk tale.