Bengaluru boy Anil Kumble is undoubtedly one of India’s greatest cricketers. Now that he’s been made coach of the national men’s team, here’s a look at some of his most memorables games
Hometown heroes guide India home
Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru: India vs Australia – Titan Cup League Match (October 21 1996)
India was struggling to chase a modest target of 216. When Sachin Tendulkar got out for 88 with the score at 164-8, it was Anil Kumble’s 52-run partnership with fellow hometown hero Javagal Srinath that won India the game. To add to that, Kumble was decent with the ball returning with figures of 10-0-40-2.
Kumble bowls with a broken jaw
St John’s, Antigua: West Indies vs India – 2nd Test (May 10-14, 2002)
Batting at No.7, Kumble was rattled by a bouncer from Mervyn Dillon. It turned out that Kumble had broken his jaw but astonishingly it wasn’t enough to keep him from bowling as a heavily bandaged Kumble walked out to bowl and even dismissed Brian Lara!
Anil Kumble: Centurion
The Oval, London: England vs India – 3rd Test (August 9-13 2007)
Batting first, India amassed 664 runs. While Karthik (91), Tendulkar (82) and Dhoni (92) all fell short of a hundred, Anil Kumble displayed remarkable poise and patience with the bat to bring up his maiden test century.
Kumble dream spell disrupts West Indies
Eden Gardens, Kolkata: India vs West Indies – Hero Cup Finals ( November 27 1993)
Set a modest target of 226, West Indies were confident of winning the Hero Cup final in 1993. But the batting line-up of Jimmy Adams, Carl Hooper and Brian Lara was in for a crude shock when a dream spell from Anil Kumble saw India win by 103 runs. Kumble’s 6.1-2-12-6 broke the record for best bowling figures by an Indian and was only bettered recently by Stuart Binny.
All out!
Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi: India vs Pakistan - 2nd Test (February 4-7 1999)
India set a formidable target of 420 in the Feroz Shah Kotla test of 1999. A blinding start by Saeed Anwar and Shahid Afridi saw Pakistan cruise to 101-0 when Kumble struck to remove Afridi. Ijaz Ahmed at #3 was back in the pavilion with the score unchanged. In the next 2 hours and 22 minutes, Kumble created history by picking up all 10 Pakistani wickets to become only the second man (after Jim Laker in 1956) in history to claim all 10 wickets in a test match. Needless to add, India won the match by 212 runs.